Twisted
by Dan Q. Bailey
Summary: Willowpaw reveals feelings for Jaypaw, and if them sorting through all that isn't enough, try to attempt that amid a backdrop of vengeful ancestors, unfair assumptions, and a mysterious stranger that draws the young cats in. Takes place during The Sight. Slightly AU, mostly with character relationships.
1. Chapter 1

Twisted

Chapter One

The half-moon floated in the night sky above, wreathed in the millions of tiny stars that the cats who made their home by the lake called Silverpelt. Tonight being the night of the half-moon, the medicine cats from each of the four Clans, RiverClan, ThunderClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan, plus their apprentices, had come together to share tongues with their warrior ancestors, StarClan, at the Moonpool.

Plodding along behind her mentor and the other medicine cats along the worn trail to the Moonpool, tail trailing and head drooping, the RiverClan medicine cat apprentice, Willowpaw, gave a long, rather drawn-out sigh. Her pale gray fur practically hung off of her pelt like the leaves on the trees, and she was noticably thinner than usual. Her eyes staring at the ground, though they really didn't see it, and her thoughts were elsewhere, though not necessarily far away.

Pausing, she forced her eyes away from the ground and stared almost hopelessly up at the stars. As she looked at them, twinkling gently way up above, she wondered if her ancestors would visit her in her dreams tonight, and she feared that they wouldn't. She hadn't had a dream from them in so long, and what would become of RiverClan if both their medicine cats were cut off from StarClan? Willowpaw supressed a shudder at such a terrifying thought. She couldn't let that happen!

She was brought back to reality by the sound of her mentor's voice calling her, "Willowpaw! Hurry up!"

Willowpaw whipped around to see her mentor, Mothwing, and the other medicine cats waiting for her a little further up the path. Grinning sheepishly, she hastned to catch up to them, and heard Jaypaw, the ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice, mutter under his breath, "What a stupid furball! Holding all of us up with her silly fantasies!" His words cut through her, and as the cats continued up the path, she resumed her place at the back of the group.

When they got up to the Moonpool the seven cats carefully made their way down the spiral path, their paws slipping easily into the paw marks left so long ago by the cats that had, presumably, once lived by the lake, that led down to the pool. Once they reached the pool, the cats took a drink of the cold, clear water and then settled by the shore for a long sleep.

As soon as the water touched her, Willowpaw froze and immediately felt sleepy. As she sunk into the warm darkness of sleep and felt her consciousness slipping away as she relinquished her hold on the waking world, she briefly wondered if StarClan would, in fact, visit her in her sleep. Then the world went black.

When Willowpaw opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in a hollow she had never seen before, one with four huge oaks surrounding it and an enormous rock with four cats seated upon it. As she looked around she was startled to find herself in the middle of a sea of cats, cats with the scent of all four different Clans. She looked up at the sky to see a full moon, and realized that this must be a Gathering, and the place where she was must be Fourtrees, the place where the Clans used to come to gather back in the forest.

Willowpaw scented an approaching ThunderClan she-cat and had to remind herself that this was a Gathering, not a border patrol. Almost immediately afterwards she scented a RiverClan tom.

The tom was meowing, "My name is Oakfur. What's yours?"

"Bluefur," The blue-gray she-cat meowed. "I can tell you're from RiverClan. Weren't you a part of that recent attempt to try and steal Sunningrocks?"

The scene faded before Willowpaw could catch his reply, and she found herself at the bank of a large, iced over river. Four cats, all ThunderClan, were hunting along the river. She recognized three of them, much younger versions of Firestar, Graystripe, and Brackenfur. But the fourth, a dark gray little she-cat, she had never recalled seeing before.

A vole had appeared on the bank of the river, and Graystripe tore off after it. Firestar tried to call him back, but the large gray tabby tom was too intent upon his hunting to hear. She watched in silent horror as he skidded out onto the ice and it cracked beneath him, dragging him in. However, a silver tabby she-cat, smelling of RiverClan, raced over to the spot he had fallen in and pulled him to the surface, dragging him over to the ThunderClan bank.

The scene faded to be replaced by darkness, and out of this darkness the starry figure of Feathertail appeared. Desperate to speak to someone from StarClan, Willowpaw burst out, "Feathertail! Why was I shown this?"

"We can't help who we fall in love with," said Feathertail sadly, "only what we choose to do about it. Make a wise choise, Willowpaw." With these parting words she faded away, and Willowpaw awoke.

_We can't help who we fall in love with, only what we choose to do about it._ Feathertail's words echoed in Willowpaw's head as the other medicine cats and their apprentices awoke and they prepared to leave. The cats walked slowly up the slope, Willowpaw and Jaypaw at the end of the line. She glanced at Jaypaw, then up at the other cats. Making a quick decision, she stopped and hissed, "Hey, Jaypaw!"

The prickly ThunderClan apprentice stopped and turned around, his voice loud and rather annoyed, "What do you want?"

Her voice still a whisper, Willowpaw said, "Shh! I want to talk to you about something. Alone," she added hurriedly when he turned toward the leaving cats.

Interest piqued by her secretive manner, Jaypaw sat down and, curling his tail neatly over his forepaws, asked, "Okay, what is it?"

"I-" Willowpaw's mouth suddenly went dry and her throat started to close, stopping and more words from escaping. She took a huge gasp of air and began again. "I-"

"Would you hurry up?!" interrupted Jaypaw impatiently. "I haven't got all night you know."

Angry and chagrined by his impatience, Willowpaw burst out angrily, "I love you!" Immediately she clamped her mouth shut and fearfully awaited his outburst.

There was none. Instead he just sat there, stunned, for a few seconds, then suddenly he got up and charged away, leaving Willowpaw sitting there all alone. She looked after him, then rejectedly got up and followed him, wishing to StarClan that she had never opened her big mouth.

When she caught up with the others, Leafpool and Jaypaw were gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

When they reached the ThunderClan camp, Jaypaw stormed through the tunnel entrance, past Stormfur (who was on guard duty), across the clearing, into the medicine cat's den, and straight to his nest. He had already curled up with his tail tip over his nose and was fegning sleep when Leafpool came up. The medicine cat took one look at her "sleeping" apprentice and then disappeared into her own den.

As soon as she was gone, Jaypaw lifted his head and stared off into space, literally. Willowpaw's words, that little "I love you", kept repeating themselves over and over again in his mind. He kept seeing her, as if on instant replay, saying it over and over. Those three, simple words that were somehow managing to turn his entire life upside down_._

_Why couldn't she have ust kept this to herself_? he thought bitterly to himself_. Why'd she have to burden _me_ with all of this? I never asked for this. _

_True,_ a familiar voice answered. Jaypaw jerked his head in the direction of the voice, so startled that for a moment he couldn't see. It was a further shock to him when he actually _saw _the cat staring back at him. At first he thought it was his father, Brambleclaw, and indeed the resemblance was stunning, but then he noticed a subtle difference in the narrowed amber eyes and a scent washed over him.

He sighed. Tigerstar. He should have known. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Naturally," said Tigerstar, dipping his head and blinking his amber eyes in a friendly way. "You know, Jaypaw, I can't exactly help you with your Willowpaw problem, but I can help in other areas."

Jaypaw slid his gaze towards Tigerstar. It was part of his philosophy not to trust anyone. Then, rather spontaneously, he burst out laughing, his whiskers trembling violently with the force of his mirth. "Ha ha ha ha! You're just pulling my tail. What use would _you, _of all cats, have for a blind cat like me?"His laugh, while light, carried a rather bitter undertone.

Tigerstar looked hurt, and meowed, "I don't want to _use _you for anything. I want to _help _you. You have a lot of talent, Jaypaw, even if you and everyone else doesn't recognize it. All I want to do is to help you recognize and enhance those talents. What you do with them afterwards is your business."

Jaypaw regretted his earlier outburst and hung his head. "I- I'll think about it," he promised. Tigerstar nodded his head and disappeared. For the rest of the night, the gray medicine cat apprentice slept peaceful, undisturbed dreams.

"Jaypaw, time to wake up."

The gray apprentice blinked open his jay blue eyes and saw- nothing. Sighing, he got up, stretched, and padded after Leafpool, his mentor. His tail dragging behind him, he began tiredly sorting herbs. Boring, boring, boring. This was what he hated most about being a medicine cat. No battles, no excitement, just sitting inside his den all day sorting stinking herbs. Bleh. Boring. Jaypaw had always felt he was always much better suited to a life in the forest.

Leafpool must have noticed how down her apprentice was feeling, for she stopped in her own herb sorting and said, "You know, I think these herbs are all properly sorted. Why don't we go out into the forest for some practice fighting? We can join Ashfur and Lionpaw."

Jaypaw's ears pricked at this suggestion, and he nodded vigorously, his whole demeanor brightening considerably. "Let's go then. Come on." Leafpool exited the den and Jaypaw followed her. Soon they were out of camp and had arrived at the training hollow.

Lionpaw and Ashfur were already there, as were Cinderpaw and Cloudtail. The two apprentices had been engaged in a practice battle watched by their mentors, but had stopped as Jaypaw and Leafpool appeared. "Hi Jaypaw! Hi Leafpool!" greeted Cinderpaw, rushing up to touch her nose to theirs. Jaypaw just nodded in response.

"What are you doing here, Leafpool?" asked Ashfur a little more than sharply. "There are no herbs to be collected here." He appeared to be sneering, and a sudden chill of cold dislike swept over Jaypaw, surprising him.

The gray apprentice opened his mouth, prepared to make a sharp, sarcastic come-back at what he took to be a personal insult, but Leafpool's tail sweeping into his mouth prevented him from doing so. "True," replied Leafpool patiently. "We're here for battle training, same as you. Medicine cats have to know how to defend themselves too, you know." Despite the politeness of her tone, Jaypaw couldn't help but hear some of the same dislike in her voice, overlayed by a pacifying will.

Ashfur decided to leave it at that and with a snort of contemt turned away. Cloudtail glanced between the two, his foster brother and grand niece, then sighed and nodded for Leafpool to join him. "Why don't you have Jaypaw match up against Cinderpaw? Then you'll have a better idea of what you need to teach him." Leafpool blinked gratefully at the white warrior and nodded for Jaypaw to join Cinderpaw.

Jaypaw gritted his teeth, but did as his mentor had told him anyway. The way Cloudtail had made his proposal had made it sound as if Jaypaw had absolutely no idea how to fight. Well, he'd show him! Just because he couldn't see didn't mean that he was entirely helpless.

Crouching low, he waited patiently for Cinderpaw to make the first move. This would give him the advantage, for although he couldn't see what she was doing, the noise she made while doing it would be enough to let him know where she was. He turned out to be right. When she pounced at him, her hindpaws scraped the leaves on the forest floor, creating a dry rustling noise. Jaypaw rose to meet her, but mistimed his counterattack, ending up sprawled in an undignified position on the floor of the training hollow, Cinderpaw's paw on his chest pinning him down.

_Use your hindlegs, _suggested a thought in Jaypaw's head. He had no idea where it had come from, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. Using his hindlegs, he pushed up against Cinderpaw's belly and shoved her off of him. She rolled neatly away, only mildly surprised. He scrambled back to his paws and stood, ready to meet her should she try to attack again.

_Pounce on her,_ urged the thought, _but don't put all your weight on her, just enough to shove her down. _Considering the thought a credible source of information concerning battles, Jaypaw did as it suggested. As he felt the leaves slide from under his hindpaws though, the thought suddenly cautioned him. _Wait, she's deciding to change position._

Jaypaw decided that he would carry on with the plan as is, just changing direction. Taking a deep, silent breath in order to scent her new position, the blind cat launched himself off the ground in a mighty leap. Sailing through the air, he cursed silently at his own bad luck as he heard Cinderpaw passing by underneath him. When he landed, all four of his paws thudded heavily on the ground and then, as if there was nothing else that would be more embarassing, he slipped and fell with a surprised yowl. Quick as a flash, Cinderpaw had pinned him down. He made a feeble attempt to break free, but to no avail. The fall had beat all the air out of his lungs, leaving him tired and breathless.

"That's enough. Good work Cinderpaw! Jaypaw," meowed Leafpool, stepping forward from where she, Cloudtail, Ashfur, and Lionpaw had been watching on the sidelines.

Cinderpaw leapt off of Jaypaw and padded up to her mentor excitedly, leaving the medicine cat apprentice to pick himself up. "I was awesome, wasn't I?" she asked, purring, as Cloudtail congratulated her.

Jaypaw spat some dirt and leaves out of his mouth and twitched his tail tip irately. The battle had been going in his favor until he slipped. It had only been pure, dumb luck that Cinderpaw had won. The fact that Leafpool had barely acknowledged him afterwards was just a further blow in the face.

Lionpaw came forward and made to rub against his shoulder in a gesture of sympathy, but Jaypaw veered away and hissed, "Leave me alone!" He felt his brother's eyes following him as he turned and left the hollow, and he felt slightly guilty aboiut the sadness he sensed there. Angrily, he pushed the feeling away and continued on through the forest, not caring where he was going and too absorbed in his thoughts to notice.

Eventually he paused when he felt the wind, strong and fresh, battering his thin gray pelt. Scenting the air, he realized that he was at the lakeshore, the gentle slapping of the waves on the shore filling his ears. Allowing the sounds and scents to wash over him, he felt himself lulling into a sense of peace. Realizing this, he struggled out of it, angry.

He had to rely on his senses for everything; he couldn't even tell where he was without someone having to tell him or him having to listen or smell for clues. Well, he was fed up with it! He was sick and tired of being blind. Of not being able to be a warrior because of it. _Well, not any longer! _he thought. _Tigerstar, I accept your proposal._

_ Excellant, _answered Tigerstar's voice in his head. _You shall be an exceptional apprentice._

Jaypaw smiled. Finally, a mentor who took him seriously. He was so elated he has almost forgotten about Willowpaw.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, next chapter. Oh, and yes, I know that in _The Sight _Minnowpaw was described as being gray and white, but in _Twilight _she was described as being completely black. I have decided to stick with her original description, so don't bother to tell me that her pelt color has changed. I already know. But I don't care. I'm going with how it originally was, and that's that.**

**Sorry it's so short. I originally had more written out for this chapter, but cut it out because it didn't fit.**

Chapter Three

Willowpaw had _not_ forgotten about Jaypaw. The gray tabby tom still stalked her dreams, and while she enoyed the feelings he gave her, he scared her, too. He was everywhere, she _could_ hardly close her eyes without seeing him, let alone sleep. And, as if that wasn't bad enough already, Mothwing was beginning to notice, and she was afraid others were, too.

The pale gray RiverClan she-cat shook her head and got up out of her nest, unsheathing her claws in a stretch that reached all the way from the tip of her nose down the legnth of her long tail. It was early in the morning, but she couldn't sleep anyway. Passing Mothwing, who was still curled up in her nest asleep, she stepped out into the main part of the camp.

An apprentice, Minnowpaw, who also happened to be one of Willowpaw's best friends, passed by. "Hi, Willowpaw!" exclaimed the apprentice, happy as always. _She's lucky. She doesn't have any forbidden problems to attend to, _thought Willowpaw bitterly. But, she forced herself to fake a smile and nodded a 'hello' back.

However, the small black she-cat was not so easily deterred. Padding over, she asked, "What's wrong Willowpaw? You don't look so good; Are you sure you're feeling well?"

Willowpaw knew her friend was only asking out of genuine concern, but she couldn't help replying impatiently and in a bitter tone. "Of course I'm sure! I'm absolutely fine," she added in a lower tone, hoping that Minnowpaw wouldn't pry any further. However, as usual, such hope was in vain.

"No, you're not," meowed Minnowpaw. "And I'm not going to stop asking until you tell me what's bothering you, so you may as well tell me."

Willowpaw was sorely tempted to reply 'You are' but held her tongue. Minnowpaw's friendship meant too much to her for her to jeopardize it with a thoughtless comment like that. Looking up, she found Minnowpaw's intelligent green eyes gazing evenly back at her, daring her not to answer.

Sighing, she looked away again and meowed, "Okay, I'll tell you, but only on one condition."

"What?" asked Minnowpaw, intrigued.

"You have to promise not to tell anybody, and I mean _anybody_, under _any_ circumstances. Got that?" The black cat nodded, looking almost as if she was going to burst from the suspense of waiting. "I-" Willowpaw began, then stopped. This was almost as difficult as telling Jaypaw himself, though for different reasons. With him, she had been admitting her feelings to the tom she had a crush on, and though that had been difficult, it had felt right, at least. But now she had more doubts and misgivings than ever. It felt as if she was giving up everything that made who she was, her position as medicine cat apprentice, the life she had known and loved ever since she was a tiny kit in the nursery. Did she really want to give it all up?

"Well, hurry up!" meowed Minnowpaw, bouncing up and down.

Jerked back to reality, Willowpaw began agian. "I- I think I'm in love." She cringed as soon as the words left her mouth, knowing that she could not take them back and fearing the consequences.

Minnowpaw's eyes went round with surprise and disbelief. "Bu- but you're a medicine cat!" she gasped out, stumbling over her words in shock.

"I'd noticed, thanks," meowed Willowpaw dryly. She really didn't need this right now.

"This is against the warrior code!" Minnowpaw continued as if she hadn't heard anything.

"Again, noticed."

"Bu-but who is it you think you're in love with? Pebblepaw?" Her whiskers twitched in amusement at the mention of her brother.

"No," replied Willowpaw as if the mere thouhgt was ridiculous. Sighing, she had dreaded this question!, she meowed, "I, I can't tell you. It's a secret."

"And the fact that you were in love in the first place wasn't?" asked Minnowpaw sarcastically. "Listen, Willowpaw, you've already told me this much, you may as well tell me all of it. So come on, who is it? Someone in RiverClan?"

Willowpaw looked directly into Minnowpaw's eyes and said, "It's Jaypaw."

"Who?" asked Minnowpaw, not daring to believe her ears. If Willowpaw had said the name she thought she'd said, then both of them were in for a whole heap of trouble.

"Jaypaw, the ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice." Willowpaw was finding it hard to remain calm. Blinking, she swallowed her fears in an effort to appear more at ease than she felt.

Minnowpaw bowed her head and shook it slowly, muttering under her breath as she did so. "Oh, Willowpaw," she looked up, her eyes wide and fearful, "what have you done?"

Willowpaw gulped audibly, instantly regretting her decision to tell Minnowpaw.


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm really sorry at long it's taken me to get this chapter up. It's not that I haven't already had it written out, it's just that whenever I get the computer to myself for typing this (which isn't often), I find myself sidetracked by this really addicting webcomic I've been following. So, again, sorry. Oh, but on a different note, I'm actually kinda proud of this chapter. It marks the longest chapter I've ever written, and I think I deserve a little credit for that. Anway, enjoy!**

Chapter Four

"No," growled Tigerstar, lifting his paw off of Jaypaw's chest and allowing the gray apprentice to stand. "You have to_ anticipate _my move. You may be able to see here, but you're at a disadvantage in the real world. You have to use the warrior's senses you were born with. I'm not going to waste my time mentoring you if you're not going to at least _try_. Now, let's do this again."

Tigerstar took up a crouching position a few tail-lengths away and, gritting his teeth, Jaypaw scrambled to his paws. Though deep down he knew that what the broad-shouldered tabby said was true, it still angered him. Taking up his own fighting crouch, the two began circling one another, tails lashing the air.

This time it was Jaypaw who made the first move. He suddenly broke their ever-closing circle and leaped at Tigerstar, who dodged effortlessly to the side and delivered a stout blow of his own to Jaypaw's head. The hit knocked the young cat effortlessly to the ground, and, seizing his opportunity, Tigerstar hauled him up from the ground by his scruff. Jaypaw felt the movement and immediately went limp. He felt Tigerstar's whiskers twitch in triumph, and then he struck.

Swinging round, Jaypaw kicked his captor in the throat, causing Tigerstar to drop him to the ground as his mouth was forced to open in a wordless yowl. Quick as a flash, the apprentice pushed the older cat down and, in the split-second before he realized what was happening, had pinned him down.

"Hmph," scoffed Jaypaw, smirking. "If that's what you call a waste of your time, I'd like to see what you consider a good use of it."

A murderous glare passed over the dark tabby's eyes, but it was gone so fast it was almost as if it wasn't there at all. Then he did something completely unexpected: he purred. It was a misused, rusty purr, but it held genuine pleasure and amusement nonetheless. "So, it would seem that the pupil has bested the teacher!" Then his eyes became hard once more. "But it is the teacher, not the student, who teaches the last lesson."

With a heavy grunt, Tigerstar rolled forward onto his paws, his heavier bulk carrying Jaypaw forward with him. The gray apprentice tumbled to the ground and landed with a surprised grunt. The giant paw adding weight to his chest didn't help. "Better," grunted Tigerstar, getting off, "but still not up to your full potential. Ask that silly mentor of yours for more battle practice. It's like she just has you sitting around in that den sorting herbs all day. I'll see you tonight."

Jaypaw would have liked to have been able to tell Tigerstar just _how_ accurate his assumption was, but the dark tabby was already fading from view. As the world faded into black once more, he vowed to take Tigerstar's advice.

"Hey, Leafpool," began Jaypaw, approaching his mentor. The tabby-and-white medicine cat was busy taking stock of their supplies, but at the sound of her apprentice's voice turned around and blinked for him to continue. "Can I have more battle practice?"

Jaypaw felt Leafpool's look of surprise and felt his fur prickle. He had decided to be blunt with her, but still, it wasn't all _that _surprising._ Did she really expect me to prefer sorting and collecting boring old herbs to fighting? How mouse-brained! _He stood shifting anxiously from paw to paw for what felt like ever before she anwered him.

"Sure," Leafpool meowed hesitantly, nodding slowly. "I suppose some more training won't hurt." Despite her words, Jaypaw could feel her indecisivness rolling off of her in waves. Scowling inwardly, he wondered whether everyone secretly thought that he would never be able to fare for himself. _Probably, _he thought, _but I'll show them. I'll show them all! And I'll prove them all wrong!_

"So, can we start now?" Jaypaw asked, challenge and impatience both present in his voice. Leafpool nodded again and, feeling her hesitation, Jaypaw turned and stalked out of the medicine cat den, Leafpool following right behind him.

The medicine cat took the lead as they went through the entrance tunnel. Emerging out into the forest, the two almost bumped into Firestar, who was leading back a border patrol.

The ThunderClan leader's face registered pleasant surprise at encountering both his daughter and grandson. Stepping aside so as to allow the rest of his patrol, made up of Dustpelt, Sandstorm, and Graystripe, to enter camp, he turned to Leafpool. "Hello, Leafpool, Jaypaw. What a pleasant surprise, running into you two."

Dipping her head to her leader, Leafpool meowed, "Good morning, Firestar. How was the patrol? ShadowClan not giving us any trouble, I hope."

"No," Firestar shook his head in negation. "It's as silent as a mouse over there. How're things going in the medicine cat's den? Jaypaw's training is going well, I trust." Leafpool nodded.

Jaypaw kneaded the ground impatiently, tearing up the grass with his claws. He was getting bored with all of this small-talk, and wondered when they could finally get back to his battle-training. His senses were flooded with the sounds and smells of the forest, and sounds of the older cats' conversation swiftly faded into background noise. The forest, what he could sense and feel around him; it awakened the warrior blood inside him, making him feel like the most powerful being on Earth. He felt like tearing through the forest, participating in the wonder of the hunt, and fighting battle after battle, never tiring. He felt strong, but more than anything, he felt dangerous.

"Jaypaw? Jaypaw?" Leafpool's voice called him back to the present here-and-now. Looking up at her, he stared her straight in the face and asked, "What?" He was slightly puzzled that Firestar was still there, and briefly wondered what it was the ThunderClan leader could want.

"Firestar's offered to train with you. He says he doesn't spend as much time with the training of young cats as he should, and feels that, if you don't mind, he'd like very much to help in your battle training."

Jaypaw scoffed silently at her choice of wording, but nodded wordlessly. If agreeing to let Firestar train him was going to let them actually get some fighting anytime today, he'd do it. _Besides, _he thought, _being taught by another leader is no bad thing. _

Seeing his assent, the ginger tom led the way to the training hollow which, surprisingly, was empty. Jaypaw came right on in after him, with Leafpool lagging behind. The tabby-and-white she-cat looked less than enthusiastic, and seemed as hesitant and unsure as ever. Jaypaw could sense the worry in her amber eyes as she watched her father and nephew prepare to square off, but, as usual, her thoughts were an impenetrable mass of fog.

Firestar took a stance on the opposite side of the training hollow and said, "I suppose Leafpool has at least taught you the basics of fighting?" Jaypaw shook his head quickly. Leafpool hadn't bothered to teach him anything but herbs.

Firestar seemed rather taken aback, but quickly shook it off. "Okay, then," he meowed, "let's start with a few basic fighting moves. I'm going to stand here, and I want you to attack me."

Jaypaw almost scoffed out loud. He had already passed this stage in training with Tigerstar. _This is going to be _so_ easy..._

Considering carefully, Jaypaw slid into a crouch. He felt confident in his ability to fight, and therefore wasn't afraid to show a little cockiness. Taking the time to first sink his claws slowly into the sandy floor, he then launched himself across the hollow and felt his paws sinking into Firestar's pelt. There was a brief struggle, and suddenly he felt himself falling. Yowling in surprise, Jaypaw scratched frantically at the air and managed to land on all four paws.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jaypaw pricked his ears at the sudden movement to his left. He barely had time to turn before Firestar barrelled into him, knocking him, once again, to the ground. A paw to his chest stopped him from even attempting to get up, and then, just like that, it was over.

"Hmm. Very good, Jaypaw. You probably would have had me if you'd been a bit faster. Work on your agility a little bit more and you may be able to beat me."

"I'm sure that's all very true, Firestar. But still, as my apprentice, I believe Jaypaw is up to par on what he needs to know." meowed Leafpool tersely.

Firestar and Jaypaw turned to Leafpool as one. "Oh, come on, Leafpool!" meowed Firestar. Jaypaw could sense the excitement boiling up in his leader, and could just imagine his green eyes sparkling with excitement. "I just want to take care of his battle trianing; he'll be completely free to you for any and all medicine cat duties. Besides, you know how long it's been since I last had an apprentice, and he's just got so much potential!"

"Well, yes, but still! He's my apprentice!"

"Please!?" asked Firestar. Jaypaw turned his eyes to Leafpool as well, fixing her with a pleading stare. This could be the chance he'd been waitng for! His one chance to prove everybody wrong and show them all that he could be more than just a medicine cat. He fervently hoped that Leafpool would give in to her father's pleading.

It would seem that his prayer, and Firestar's, had been answered. Leafpool rolled her eyes and meowed, "Alright, alright! I know how stubborn you can be, Firestar. You won't stop bothering me until I agree, and Jaypaw, you can be just as bad. Just go! I won't be needing you for the rest of the day." With that, Leafpool turned and left the training hollow, muttering under her breath about headstrong tomcats all the way back to camp.

When she was gone, Firestar turned to Jaypaw and meowed, "Let's get started then, shall we?"

It was nearing sunset when Jaypaw and Firestar, tired and hungry, came back into camp. They had spent all day in the training hollow, practice fighting. Jaypaw had improved, and despite his rather jubilant mood, he felt rather sore all over. While Firestar went over to the fresh-kill pile, Jaypaw stumbled to the medicine cat den and flopped down on his nest, exhausted. He was just too tired to eat right now.

As soon as he closed his eyes he fell asleep. Blinking them open, he was surprised to find himself standing in the training hollow (which he only recognized by the scent), and across from him stood Tigerstar.

"Greetings, Jaypaw," meowed Tigerstar, blinking his amber eyes warmly.

Jaypaw returned the greeting, then asked, "What are we doing here?"

"Ah, yes. Well, I thought that, as your mentor, I should at least bother to show you around the territory you occupy when asleep. I do realize that you know your territory, but that only be what you can hear and smell. This is your chance to _see_ it. Now, this is the first and only time I'm going to do this, so _memorize it. _Got that? Alright, let's go!"

Tigerstar took Jaypaw all over the territory, showing him the landmarks and telling him what type of prey could be found there, what the dangers were, and how it could be used stratigically. When they were done and had returned to the hollow, Jaypaw felt more worn out and ragged than ever. "Did you get all of that?" Tigerstar asked sternly. Jaypaw just nodded weakly as Tigerstar disappeared in a whirl of smoke.

When Jaypaw next opened his eyes, it was only to see the solid blackness to which he was accustomed. He still felt just as tired as he had when he'd laid down, even more so after his run with Tigerstar that spanned the whole of ThunderClan territory.

Closing his eyes again, he tried to return to sleep, but he was already wide awake, and with a sigh he acknowledged this and got up. Scenting the air, he could tell that it was still night. Feeling even more put off by this, he decided now would be a good time to go take a walk.

**Okay, just so you know, I only made Leafpool a little bit of a control freak because, well, besides from appearing nosey, she always seemed so bossy to me. That's part of the reason she's not officialy on the list of my favorite characters for this series. Also, I know it seems kind of weird, but think about it, Firestar hasn't had an apprentice since Brambleclaw, and if I were him, I'd be pretty excited to be mentoring another young cat. Oh, and I know Jaypaw seems kind of OC, vut that's only because after he became a medicine cat apprentice his character became kind of boring. Let's just say this is me trying to spice him up a little bit more. However, if that image ruins your perception of his character, just think of it of how his character would be if I wrote the books. But if that, too, is unacceptable to you, well, boo-hoo. This is the way it's going to be. Don't like it? Kiss my rump. (In case you didn't get that, that is a reference to a song on Family Guy.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, so I figure I've taken long enough of a break from this story, so I'm returning to it now. Oh, just to let you know, Chapter Six for this story is still in production because it is an extra. But since without it I already have nine chapters written out, I'm willing to let you guys take a vote. If you would rather have me leave out the extra and have it appear later down the line somewhere else, I am willing to do so. However, if you would like to have me continue with the extra chapter, I am willing to do that also. When I feel I have had an adequate sampling of the reading population of this story, I shall say so on my profile page and then the voting will be over. So, yeah, while you're thinking about that, you can read and enjoy this...**

Chapter Five

"Willowpaw!" called Mothwing from the medicine cat's den.

Willowpaw pricked her ears and, quickly grabbing a stringy squirrel from off the fresh-kill pile, loped over to her mentor. Dropping the prey at her paws, she asked, "What is it, Mothwing? Do you need me to do anything for you?"

"Yes, actually, meowed the golden tabby she-cat, twitching her ears nervously. "Listen, Willowpaw, have you had any signs from StarClan recently?"

"No." Willowpaw shook her head, unsure as to what Mothwing was getting at. _It must be something serious, _she thought, _if she's inquiring about dreams from StarClan. _"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing, just wondering." Mothwing looked at her paws as she said this, and Willowpaw narrowed her eyes at the somewhat suspect nature of the medicine cat. Now that she looked, Mothwing looked really worried about something. She may be successful at hiding it from the other RiverClan cats, but not from her own apprentice. Her fur was hardly groomed, her ears twitched suspiciously whenever there was a noise, and her tail was in constant frenzy, swishing back and forth like crazy. However, Willowpaw had very little time to contemplate the nature of Mothwing's worry, as Mistyfoot chose just then to limp in with blood running freely from a wound on the inside of her left foreleg.

"Great StarClan, Mistyfoot!" exclaimed Willowpaw, blue eyes stretching wide. "What happened?"

"Me and my patrol were renewing the scent markers along our border with WindClan, where we met up with a WindClan patrol. Two of their warriors crossed our border, accusing us of trying to trespass, and we had a bit of a skirmish. Ashfoot got me pretty good just before it broke up." The deputy began to sway on her paws, and Willowpaw noticed with alarm that a pool of blood was forming at her paws.

"Hurry up and lie down," snapped Mothwing, indicating a freshly-made nest lined up against the wall. "Were any other cats of your patrol hurt?"

"Just a few scrapes and scratches," replied Mistyfoot, shaking her head. "Nothing serious, or I would have insisted that they come here with me."

Mothwing just nodded distractedly. "Very well, I'll go check on them in a minute. Willowpaw, hurry and get some cobwebs to stop the bleeding. Mistyfoot's going to be your patient for a while. Now, Mistyfoot, who else was in your patrol?"

Not wasting any time, the medicine cat apprentice scurried up to where the supplies of cobwebs were kept. She saw with alarm that there weren't very many of them left. Carefully wrapping the remaining cobwebs around her forepaw so as not to tear any of the precious strands, she hobbled over to where Mistyfoot lay and applied them to the wound.

She could see as the dressed it that Mothwing had already licked it clean, and looking around reminded herself to ask one of the apprentices to help her clean up all of the blood that Mistyfoot had scattered around. She also saw that her mentor had left a few poppyseeds laying next to Mistyfoot. Pushing these closer to the deputy with her paw, Willowpaw said, "Here, eat these. They'll numb some of the pain and let you fall asleep. That'll quicken the healing process." Willowpaw watched the darker gray she-cat as she licked them up and slowly relaxed, relieved of pain.

Seeing her patient was fine, Willowpaw turned toward the entrance and saw Pebblepaw walking past. "Pebblepaw!" she called. "Pebblepaw, do you have a moment?" The dark gray apprentice turned around and paused, waiting to hear her out. "Can you help me clean up the medicine cat den? Mistyfoot sprayed blood everywhere, and it's too a big a job for me to do alone."

Pebblepaw nodded and walked forward towards her. She ushered him in and handed him a ball of wet moss. She then took one for herself and the both of them began silently scrubbing the floor and the walls. As she worked, Willowpaw discovered that there was actually more blood than she had initially realized. At the end of the job they found themselves with four large balls of blood-soaked moss.

Willowpaw was about to ask Pebblepaw if he would help her carry them out of camp, but the warrior apprentice beat her to it. "I'll help you carry out all that moss, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," meowed Willowpaw around a mouthful of moss.

Pebblepaw picked up his share of the moss and the two of them made their way across the camp clearing and to the camp entrance. The dark gray apprentice estimated that it would take them one more trip after this one, and he suddenly wished that there was a larger pile of dirty moss back in the medicine cat den waiting for the two apprentices to dump it outside of camp. He did a sudden doubletake.

_Now why would I wish that? _he wondered. Cautously, he regarded Willowpaw out of the corner of his eye. Watching as she padded along beside him, head and tail held high and the lean muscles of her slender form working together to bring her forward step by step, he felt his admiration for her grow. Sure, he liked Willowpaw. Every cat in RiverClan did. The pale gray medicine cat apprentice was very popular, even with cats in other Clans.

True, when he and Willowpaw were kits, he had harboured a soft spot for her, and even though she had spent nearly all of her time in the medicine cat's den with Mothwing, he couldn't help but hope that she would change her mind and decide to become a warrior apprentice instead, but, she had chosen the path of a medicine cat, and Pebblepaw had decided to respect her decision and move on. Still though, he had a lingering sadness about what he had never had but still lost.

Suddenly hit by a shock at the way his thoughts were forming, Pebblepaw stopped dead in his tracks. Surely he couldn't have feelings for Willowpaw? Vigorously, he shook his head. _No, _he yowled silently to himself. _She's a medicine cat! How could you possibly have feelings for her?_

"Hey, Pebblepaw! Do you think this is far enough away from the camp? Pebblepaw?" asked Willowpaw again when he didn't respond. Turning around, she saw him standing a few paw-steps behind her, a blank expression covering his face. Dropping her moss to the ground, Willowpaw walked over to Pebblepaw and waved her tail in front of his eyes. "Helloo, anybody in there?"

"Huh?" asked Pebblepaw, just noticing her in front of him, her blue eyes staring directly into his. Stepping back, he looked down to where Willowpaw had dropped her moss and deposited his right next to it and then scraped dirt over it so that it wouldn't attract any scavengers.

"What was wrong with you?" asked Willowpaw, regarding him curiously. "You were just standing there staring off into space."

"Oh, nothing," replied Pebblepaw, turning away and beginning the walk back to camp.

"Really? Are you sure StarClan didn't send you a vision or anything?" pressed Willowpaw jokingly, hoping that her gentle teasing would encourage him to open up.

"Of course I'm sure," scoffed Pebblepaw, trying not to look even slightly embarassed. "Look, would you just drop it, please? It's nothing you can help me with anyway." Willowpaw was sure that she wasn't meant to hear that last part, as it had been mumbled just barely under his breath, and so she decided to pretend as if she hadn't.

"Hey, lighten up!" she mewed, pressing close to him in what she percieved to be a friendly gesture for just a moment. "Come on, I'll race you back to camp! Last one there's a rotten fish!" With that she tore away, choosing to forget about Pebblepaw's problems for his own sake. If he wanted her to know what they were, he would tell her himself when he was good and ready, with no additional prying on her part.

Poor Pebblepaw stood, bewildered for a few seconds, her sudden gesture confusing him. It took a while before he realized that Willowpaw was gone, and with a whole new feeling of warmth flooding over him, he took off after her. Though as he raced along, all his worries fading from his conciousness, somewhere in the back of his mind, one thought repeated itself over and over_: Oh yes, I am in BIG trouble_.

---

That evening, Pebblepaw flooped down into his nest. He had had a very busy day. Besides helping Willowpaw clean out the medicine cat den, he had spent his day hunting and doing a border patrol along the ShadowClan border. After the amount of hunting Mosspelt had made him do, he wouldn't doubt it if someone told him that most of the fresh-kill on the pile haed been brought in by him. And, even more exhausting than that, his realization of love for Willowpaw.

_No, _he backtracked hastily, _not love_. He wasn't exactly sure what his feelings for Willowpaw were, or if they were strong enough to be called love. _Just to make life easier, _he decided,_ I'll just say I have a crush. Yeah, I have a small, tiny, miniscule, minor crush on Willowpaw. Nothing to get too worriod about._

He was startled out of these thoughts as another cat made its way into the den. Looking up, he say it was his sister, Minnowpaw. The small black she-cat plopped down into the nest next to his and meowed, "I just had the most tiring bout of battle training in my life! And we only practiced one move! I spent all day in the training hollow, trying to best Voletooth. And you know what? The sneaky little furball beat me every time." Blinking her green eyes after her long tirade, Minnowpaw turned to him and calmly asked, "So, what did you do today, Pebblepaw?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, first, I helped Willowpaw clean out the medicine cat den. Apparently Mistyfoot and her patrol got attacked by a WindClan patrol over by the border and she sprayed blood all over the place. Next I went on a patrol checking the border with ShadowClan, and then I spent the rest of the day hunting." Pebblepaw had purposefully kept the part about Willowpaw short; he didn't want Minnowpaw teasing him about something he himself wasn't entirely sure of yet. Despite this, he did notice Minnowpaw's ears twitch at the mention of the medicine cat's apprentices' name. She knew something about her he didn't, and not only did he feel affronted, but he also had a sudden desire to know everything and anything he could about Willowpaw.

"What do you know?" he demanded, deciding that the best way to get information out of his blabber-mouth sister was to confront her in as straight-forward a manner as possible.

"Know? Know what? I don't know anything," she mewed, suddenly finding her paws to be very interesting.

"Oh, come on, Minnowpaw. I can tell when you're trying to hide something from me. And right now I can tell you're lying to me."

"I'm not lying!" growled Minnowpaw, leaping to her paws and fluffing out her soft, kittenish black fur.

"Yeah, right," snorted Pebblepaw in disbelief. "There's something you're not telling me, and we both know it." He fixed her with his most patronizing stare, and to her credit, Minnowpaw managed to hold it for a few moments before breaking contact.

"All right," she sighed, "but you owe me big time. Also, if you tell Willowpaw I told you any of this, I'll personally rip your fur off, if she doesn't do it first, I mean." Pebblepaw nodded, and motioned for her to continue. His sister glared at him for a moment longer, then began. "I can't tell you much, 'cause it's a secret. In fact, I shouldn't even be telling you_ this_ part, so don't go and blab to anybody. Anway, Willowpaw recently told me something very, well, I suppose it could be considered nice, if it wasn't breaking the warrior code."

"Would you just get on with it?!" burst out Pebblepaw, beginning to loose patience.

Minnowpaw slapped her tail over his mouth and glared at him again through narrowed slits. "If you want to know what Willowpaw told me, I'd advise you close your mouth and listen. I'm not going to say this again. Willowpaw, she, well, it's complicated. She-- ugh, how awkward!" She paused to gather herself, then tried again, "She said- she said she wasinlovewithsomeone!" she finally burst out all in one breath, self-conciously beginning to chew at an imaginary flea at the base of her tail.

Pebblepaw was stunned. Did his sister really mean what she had just said? If she did, then that meant-- But oh! Then that entire episode with the moss suddenly made perfect sense! She hadn't asked Pouncepaw, who had been walking right in front of him and whom she must have seen, for his help because she had wanted to spend time with him! Smiling suddenly with the strength of his realization, Pebblepaw eagerly began mapping out how exactly he was supposed to approach this subject with her so she could renounce being a medicine cat and they could be together without letting her know that it was Minnowpaw who had told him.

Minnowpaw, looked up worriedly from her grooming and meowed, "I'm serious, Pebblepaw. Don't tell consequences of you doing so could be very dire for everybody involved."

Pebblepaw just nodded absently as he settled down in his nest to sleep, staring out and up at the sparkling stars of Silverpelt. Laying his head on his paws, he offered a silent prayer of thanks to his warrior ancestors before drifting off into a deep, fitful sleep.

**Alright, and as I'm sure I mentioned, I lost the page with the ending to this chapter on it, so the last bit of what you have just read is a bit of fantastic improv. On this note, I will also have to rewrite the begining of the original chapter six, as they were on the same page. So whoopie! Salutations to forgotten paragraphs that you have to tediously go back and rewrite to spare yourself the trouble of having to redo everything. Oh, and kudos to whoever takes away lost items and makes them unfindable. Really, big fan. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and don't forget to give me your opinion!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alright, so here's Chapter Six. It's taken a very long time to get all of this written down, so I'd really appreciate some feedback. Thanks. Read and Enjoy.**

Chapter Six

Leafpool sighed in fustration as she sat in her den sorting herbs, without her apprentice, again. It seemed to her that Firestar and Jaypaw spent far too much time together, and the worst part was that whenever _her _apprentice got back from training, he always looked so tired and worn out that she felt obligated to excuse him from his medicine cat duties for the day.

This had been going on for three days now, and Leafpool was becoming more and more convinced that this was a bad idea. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried to put a stop to it, it just seemed that both Firestar and Jaypaw had some sort of sixth sense for those moments. Whenever she approached them about the subject, or even thought of telling them that it had to end, they would both turn such pleading looks on her that she just walked away without saying a word.

Currently Jaypaw was asleep in his nest, where Leafpool had sent him after he had come back last night. She had been hoping that today, at least, she would have Jaypaw to herself, but the scent of Firestar heading towards her den dashed that. Apparently Jaypaw had sensed his leader's approach too, for he appeared from the entrance to the medicine cat's inner quarters adn stalked right past Leafpool to sit at the entrance to the den, waiting.

Sure enough, within a few moments, Firestar was there. He and Jaypaw were just about to leave when Leafpool finally spoke. "Enough is enough!" seh cried, turning and stalking towards her father and her apprentice. "Listen, Firestar, these lessons have to stop. Jaypaw is _my _apprentice, not yours! And in case you've forgotten, he's in training to be a medicine cat, not a warrior. He chose to give that up, and nothing we do now will ever change that."

Firestar's green eyes were stretched wide. He had never thought that his daughter, his quiet,_ peaceful_ daughter would ever dare to say things like this to him. He wasn't prepared for it, and certainly didn't know how to handle it. And besides, he _had _promised to let her have Jaypaw whenever she wanted, and he was loathe to go back on his word. _But I dont' really want to give up on Jaypaw either! _

While Firestar struggled with his decision, Jaypaw had no such inhibitions about speaking his mind. Turning his baleful blue eyes on his mentor, Jaypaw hissed, "I never wanted to give up being a warrior, and I still don't. The only reason I did was because I thought I'd never be able to fight properly. Even StarClan had given up hope on me!" He sounded angry now, and beneath that anger, an underlying tone of sadness. Hot tears of anger were beginning to well up in his eyes.

"Yeah, well, you made your nest, and now you have to lie in it!" retorted Leafpool. She herself was fighting to remain calm, and her claws were ripping through the dirt floor in fustration.

"No I don't!" exclaimed the young tom, the fur on his neck rising. "I only became a medicine cat because I felt there was no other option. But now that Firestar's been mentoring me, I see that even a completely blind cat can be a warrior. I don't even want to _be_ a medicine cat. Never have, never will!"

"Well, too bad," spat Leafpool, feeling her own neck fur starting to rise. "You _are_ a medicine cat, and that's that!"

"You can't force me to be a medicine cat against my will!" growled Jaypaw, his tail lashing in furious sweeps.

"Watch me," snarled Leafpool, narrowing her amber eyes. Still glaring at Jaypaw, she growled, "Jaypaw, you'll be staying here today helping me sort out herbs. Firestar, Jaypaw isn't going to be recieving any more warrior training, ever."

Firestar bowed his head. He would miss training Jaypaw; he had enjoyed the mentoring, and his grandson really wasn't all that prickly. But as his official mentor, Leafpool had the final say, and for once Firestar was glad that the overall decision hadn't rested on his shoulders. Feeling relieved, the ginger tom left.

When Firestar was gone, Leafpool let out a silent sigh of relief. Forcing her fur to lie flat again, she turned towards her apprentice and meowed, "Now, Jaypaw, you're going to help me seperate all the fresh and useable borage from any damaged or expired stocks." She went back to her pile of herbs, expecting to hear at any second the sound of her reluctant apprentice joining her. What she did hear surprised her.

"No."

The words were low, almost murmured, and growled out. For a moment, Leafpool thought that she'd misheard the word, though there was no mistaking the tone. "What was that?" she asked, turning to face Jaypaw.

"I said," he snarled in a louder voice, "'No'."

"Excuse me?" meowed Leafpool, amber eyes stretched wide. She was unused to any level of disrespect or disobedience whatsoever, and it showed.

Jaypaw rolled his eyes and meowed, "It means no. N-O. I quit. I'm not going to waste my life sitting around in some boring old den all day sorting moldy herbs. You can be as boring as you like, but you're not dragging me down with you." With that, the defiant apprentice turned and made to leave.

"Wait," called Leafpool. "You can't just leave. This isn't a boring life! It's the life StarClan mapped out for you. You can't escape it. It's your destiny. You're fate."

"Yeah, well, guess what? StarClan doesn't decide my destiny, _I_ do. And you know what? I've decided that my destiny doesn't involve you _or_ your boring old herbs. I hate this life, but you know what else? I hate you more."

Without another word, he left. Leafpool was left alone with a surprised look on her face. She was so preoccupied wiith trying to sort out what had happened, she didn't even notice when Thornclaw walked in with a thorn stuck in his pad.

"Umm...Leafpool?" he asked, slightly uncomfortably. Leafpool jerked out of her reviere and turned to face him, face blank. Wordlessly, she set about healing his paw.

---

When Jaypaw left Leafpool, he had run all the way into the forest, not even concious of where he was going. His senses and memory guided him, as his own thoughts were rather preoccupied.

He had never intended to go that far. It was just that their arguement had reopened all the bitter wounds hiding just beneath the surface, and he had allowed himself to get carried away on the unfairness of it all. Despite this, he felt no misgivings about it whatsoever. He was_ glad_ that the burden of being a medicine cat, spending his entire life doing something he absolutely hated, had finally been lifted from his shoulders._ Let some other cat worry about healing, my path lies far from that one._

When he finally stopped running, his senses told him that he was near a shallow hole, created by a dip in the land and sheltered by the tall oak roots stretching out on either side. Deciding that there could be worse places for a cat to lose himself in thought, he settled down inside it, lying with his paws tucked under his chest and his tail wrapped snugly around his left side. Feeling peaceful at last, he closed his bright blue eyes and drifted off.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Tigerstar staring at him from the foot of the tree opposite, a young elm that, while it still had some growing yet to do, towered high above the two cats. The big dark tabby blinked his amber eyes warmly at the younger cat. "Greetings, Jaypaw," he meowed, a rumbling purr evident in his voice.

"Greetings, Tigerstar," replied the younger tom warily. "You haven't visited me in a while. Why the sudden interest now?"

"I have been paying attention, Jaypaw. I didn't visit because I had business elsewhere, and I figured that Firestar was doing a competant enough job of mentoring you in my absence."

"Haven't you heard?" asked Jaypaw bitterly, lowering his ears, "Leafpool has forbidden Firestar to train me. From now on, the only training I'll be recieving is that of a medicine cat apprentice."

"Of course I know!" spat back Tigerstar, tail tip twitching angrily. "I also know that you disowned the life of a medicine cat, that you decided you'd pave your own path, make your own choices, decide upon your own destiny. You should feel proud! Taking control of your own life, that's what being a warrior is all about!" He smiled, an expression that didn't look quite right on his stern features. "Come here, Jaypaw. There's someone I want you to meet."

Jaypaw got up obediantly and padded over to Tigerstar's side. He looked up at the huge muscular tabby tom, his grandfather. _I wonder if what he said is true, if he really is proud of me._

"Jaypaw, this is your uncle, Hawkfrost." Jaypaw looked up in time to see another large, broad-shouldered tabby tom, an exact copy of Tigerstar except with ice blue eyes in place of amber, step out from behind the elm tree.

Hawkfrost dipped his head and meowed, "Pleasure to meet you, Jaypaw. I've been watching you. You are a true credit to your Clan."

It was then, under the eyes of his uncle and grandfather, under the extremes of amber and blue, that for the first time in his life, he felt accepted. This was his family, where belonged. Among the cats that actually liked him for him, and actually were proud of him. He was home.

---

Upon waking up, Jaypaw found himself filled with a feeling of pride. If Leafpool wasn't willing to let him have battle-training, he would be more than happy to quit being her apprentice. _Finally, _he thought jubilantly, _I'm free! No more stupid herbs, no more sitting around in the boring old camp while all the other apprentices get to go out and have fun. This is it! It's over! No more Moonpool, no more bossy Leafpool, no more Willowpaw..._

_Whoa, wait. Where did that last thought come from? _Jaypaw felt rather bewildered. That thought about Willowpaw had just popped up right out of the blue. For a moment he contemplated that somewhere, deep, deep, _deep _down, he might actually harbour feelings towards the RiverClan she-cat. Then, with an angry shake of his head, he pushed the thought away. _Nah, I'm just sick of her nosiness. I've got nothing to do with her. I'm just glad I won't be a mecidine cat apprentice anymore._

---

For the rest of the day, Jaypaw avoided the ThunderClan camp, and therefore Leafpool. Instead he spent his time following scent trails and attempting to teach himself to hunt. Despite the sharpness of his nose and the ease with which he was able to distinguish scents, he had had no formal training in the proper hunting crouches, and so the closest he came to catching something was a mouse he had been able to catch unawares under a holly bush. The mouse, however, was near a bolt hole and had so escaped.

Cursing his bad luck, Jaypaw's whiskers twitched with the awareness that it was nearing sundown. Feeling satisfied that at least he hadn't wasted his day cooped up in camp, most likely having his head chewed off by Leafpool, he decided that he'd better start getting back.

Using his senses to avoid bumping into anything and to guide him back to camp, he gave a small smile as the scents of many different cats flooded over him, heralding his arrival. Picking his way carefully, he decended the bramble tunnel that served as both entrance and exit. Not pausing, he headed towards where he knew the apprentice's den was. A careful sniff told him that no-one else was inside, so he crawled in and found a spot near the back that was currently unused.

Nestling down, he curled up with his tail covering his nose and slowed his breathing, pretending to be asleep. Not too long afterwards, Cinderpaw walked in with Honeypaw, and the two nestled down together next to the entrance. It wasn't long before they were fast asleep, Jaypaw drifting off after them.

**You know, I seriously considered having Jaypaw say at one point "Yeah, well, you know what? Fate can just go stuff itself! That's what!", but then I read a little further on and saw that if I decided to go ahead and do that there'd be a whole load of rewriting I'd have to do to make it fit properly, and I really didn't want to do that. So it is the way it is. Oh, and about Leafpool's little tirade at the beginning there, I seriously considered deleting parts of it, but then I saw that some of the parts I wanted to delete were pretty important later down the line, so I kept it the same. Yeah, I know, you can totally tell what point I'm at in typing this thing up right now, can't you?**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Lionpaw yawned, blinking his amber eyes open. The golden tabby tom sat up and surveyed the den. Cinderpaw, Honeypaw, his sister, Hollypaw, his brother, Jaypaw,... _Whoa,_ he thought, taking a second look. Jaypaw wasn't supposed to be in here!

Determined to find out what Jaypaw was doing sleeping in the apprentice's den, he got up and stalked towards the back of the den, careful to avoid any paws or tails belonging to his denmates. Upon reaching his still sleeping brother, he prodded him in the side and hissed, "Jaypaw! Wake up!"

"What?" grumbled Jaypaw, his sightless blue eyes snapping open. Lionpaw suppressed a shiver as they glared up at him, and, swallowing, he strengthened his resolve.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? You're the one sleeping in the wrong den, not me. Aren't you supposed to sleep in the medicine cat's den? You know, where apprentice medicine cats are supposed to sleep." Lionpaw asked pointedly.

"No, I'm not," mumbled Jaypaw, closing his eyes again.

"What do you mean, you're not? Where've you been spending the past few nights then?"

"I mean, I'm no longer a medicine cat apprentice," explained Jaypaw warily and with waning patience. "Look, will you just leave me alone? It's not even sunrise yet and I'm very tired." With that he settled down and went back to sleep, leaving Lionpaw to ponder the meaning of his words.

_Not a medicine cat apprentice anymore? How in the name of StarClan did that happen?_

---

Alone in his dreams, Jaypaw was tracking a mouse. It was a very smart mouse. It's scent trail kept disappearing, and whenever Jaypaw picked it up again, it doubled back on itself and led him around in circles, so he always found himself back where he had begun, just using a different route to get there. The whole thing fustrated him, but what upset the gray apprentice the most was the realization that this entire dream was just a metaphor of his whole life. He knew it was a dream sent from StarClan, and the message was clear: No matter which way you go or which path you choose, it will always lead you back to the destiny laid out for you in the stars.

Stubbornly, Jaypaw raced on ahead, determined to catch the mouse and end the game. StarClan had no power over him. He would catch the mouse in a playing ground of his own choosing, and therefore choose the placement of his own destiny.

"That's all very well. But you as you are now have not yet developed the skills necessary to catch this particular mouse. For that, you will need tricks, tricks that I can teach you."

Jaypaw whirled around and found himself staring into two, ice blue eyes. "Hawkfrost!" he eclaimed, truely surprised. He had never encountered his uncle alone before. Usually Tigerstar was with them. Suddenly, he felt nervous. Those ice blue eyes, while friendly, held a piercing quality that made Jaypaw want to squirm. "W-Would you really teach me?" he asked, hating the sudden stutter in his voice.

"Of course," purred Hawkfrost, "but first, let's leave the mouse's clearing. It is of no use to us." The clearing melted away, to be replaced by a smaller clearing with a giant rock in the center. Jaypaw recognized it from his earlier training sessions with Tigerstar. "Watch," meowed Hawkfrost simply.

Far more silently than Jaypaw would have ever thought possible for a cat of his size, the large tabby slid smoothly into a crouch. His paws seemed as light as air as he stalked around the hollow. When he was done, he stood and meowed, "Now you do it. Be sure to keep your weight off your haunches. Remember, mice are sensitive to the vibrations of the earth, so you want to remain as light as possible."

Jaypaw flicked his ear to show that he had heard. Then, trying to copy exactly what he had seen Hawkfrost do, he slid into a crouch and attempted to keep all the weight off of his haunches. It was more difficult than he had anticipated, and he found himself struggling to maintain his balance while faring no better in his ultimate goal.

Hawkfrost paced around him, studying his crouch from all angles. Jaypaw nervously awaited any criticism. He knew he had the crouch wrong. If he were to move now, a mouse all the way on the other side of the lake would be able to feel him coming. And therefore he was genuinly surprised by what the dark tabby did say:

"Hmm. Nice crouch. Needs some work though. It looks as though if a gust of wind swept over us right now, you would topple over. Listen, the trick is not to concentrate too hard on what you're doing, just let it come naturally. For now, though, it may help to pretend that you're a kit sneaking out of camp, planning to go after a couple of fox-kits." Hawkfrost's whiskers twitched in amusement. Jaypaw gave no sign that he had heard the alludement to his and his siblings' own disasterous episode except for a flick of his tail.

"Now, try it again," meowed Hawkfrost, the humor gone. "And I expect to see some actual improvement this time." A hard glint came into the tabby's ice-blue eyes.

---

Lionpaw, meanwhile, stalked out of the apprentices' den and over to the fresh-kill pile. Once he got there, he sifted through it until he found what he wanted: a nice, plump mouse. Rather absent-mindedly, he began eating it, his thoughts all the while being dragged back to Jaypaw and his problems. If there was trouble in the Clan, he ought to know about it. _Oh, great StarClan! I'm starting to think like Hollypaw!_ He shook his head vigourously and tried to concentrate on something else. He had enough problems of his own without piling on Jaypaw's as well. However, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened when exited her den and headed for the camp entrance. Apparently, this problem wasn't about to leave him alone until he figured it out.

Sighing heavily, the curious apprentice abandoned his half-eaten mouse and padded after her.

---

Leafpool padded out of camp and made her way towards the WindClan border. She had told Cloudtail, who had been on guard, that she was out gathering herbs. For some reason, she didn't want anyone to know where she was _really _going.

When she reached the stream, winding along peacefully, she felt a sense of calm wash over her, nd she had to take a deep breath keep herself from drifting along its' meandering course. She was on a mission.

Turning, the tabby-and-white she-cat followed the stream upwards to it's source. It wasn't long before she found herself there, at the banks of the Moonpool. Taking a deep breath, she touched the tip of her tongue to the water and curled up in a ball, feeling the familiar coldness take over her.

---

Lionpaw followed Leafpool's scent trail through the forest. His paws felt giddy with excitement as they led him ever onwards, through the exact pawsteps of the medicine cat.

Travelling smoothly through the undergrowth, it wasn't long before he, too, reached the stream. He, however, unlike Leafpool, did not have time to appreciate its' beauty. The way he figured it, Leafpool could be moving farther and farther away while he just stood there. Swiftly, he moved on, his nose pressed against the grass.

---

In her dream, Leafpool blinked open her amber eyes, and found herself being faced by what looked like all of StarClan, Bluestar, Spottedleaf, Yellowfang in the forefront. Scrambling to her paws, she bowed her head in deepest respect, planning how best to phrase her question.

"Leafpool," meowed Bluestar, "We know why you're here."

"Then what should I do?" asked the medicine cat, the distress evident in her voice. "You yourselves said that the path of a medicine cat was the right one for him to follow! How am I supposed to steer him back onto that path?"

"That isn't your problem!" snapped Yellowfang. "StarClan is working on that. You have a more immediate problem."

With that, the cats of StarClan faded away, like stars in the sunlight. Leafpool wanted to call out to them, to ask them what they meant, but when she next opened her eyes, she found herself back beside the Moonpool.

Sighing, she sat up and began grooming her flank, puzzling over what StarClan had told her. So they were taking care of Jaypaw's problem? She surely hoped so. The sooner he was her apprentice again, the better. She turned to flatten some of the fur on her shoulder, and found herself staring into the wide amber eyes of a rabid fox.

It lunged for her, and she found her mind blank. All of the warrior training Cinderpelt had imparted to her had deserted her, and she found herself huddled against the ground like a frightened kit. Suddenly there was a golden flash that momentarily blinded her as the sun caught it, and a horrible screech.

Leafpool blinked, then blinked again. What she saw surprised her. Lionpaw had attatched himself to the fox's face and was clawing valiently at it's eyes and snout. The fox whined and whimpered, but not in pain or fear, in rage. Flecks of foam escaped its mouth as it snarled and bit, trying in vain to bite into the cat attacking it's face.

Lionpaw disengaged and landed a few feet from the fox's snout, mere mouse-lengths in front of the frightened Leafpool. The golden tom snarled at the fox, warning it away, but it kept advancing, the blood from it's wounds dripping down it's snout and to the ground. It's eyes were rolled back in it's head, and foam dripped in excess from it's mouth.

Without a second thought for his own safety, Lionpaw leapt forward nd bit one of it's forelegs only hard enough to draw blood before leaping away. The fox, seeming hardly to notice, kept advancing forward. Lionpaw prepared to attack again, but it was just then that Leafpool found her voice.

"No! Lionpaw! Don't! That fox is infected with the crazy sickness! It won't stop fighting until it's dead, and if it bites you, you'll get infected as well."

Lionpaw looked back at her, a serious look in his amber eyes. Taking a step forward, he meowed, "Then you'd better run, Leafpool. You're too important to ThunderClan for me to let you die."

Leafpool was frozen with both fear and shock, and not just because of what Lionpaw had said. The fox was renewing it's attack.

**Okay, a bit of a cliff-hanger for you guys there. You know, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, despite the fact that it's so short. I especially liked it when I made Lionpaw sound all serious and say: "Then you'd better run, Leafpool." Seriously, I cannot think of a single cat that would have fit that line more. Oh, and about the fox. I didn't just stick him in there because I wanted to punish Lionpaw, or because there has been a serious lack of fighting scenes, but mainly because I wanted to see how the cats would react to a creature infected with rabies, also, I thought it would be a rather exciting plot twist if I killed Leafpool. But of course, I didn't. I decided that I'd have to kill Squirrelflight first, but I wanna torture her, so, yeah. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed**!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Firestar blinked open his leaf-green eyes and sat up stretching. The warmth that seeped into his fiery pelt with the rays of the rising sun waking him. Yawning widely, the ginger tom sat at the entrance to his den and surveyed his Clan, just now coming to life after the long night.

Purring, he watched his nephew, Cloudtail, and his mate, Brightheart, pick a rabbit out of the fresh-kill pile and share it. He saw Dustpelt and Ferncloud sharin tongues outside of the nursery, their two kits, Foxkit and Icekit, playing at their paws. Firestar reminded himself that the kits' apprentice ceremonies would be soon. They were getting far too big for the nursery, and were running Ferncloud ragged. Even in peaceful times like these, Clan life went on.

It was then that Firestar felt a sudden chill run down his spine. One look at the peaceful cat below, with the dawn patrol led by Brambleclaw coming back looking unharried, told him that there was no immediate danger to his Clan. However, he was sure that the chill was a dark premonition of danger to come.

---

Lionpaw saw Leafpool's look of fear and turned in time to have his nose sliced open by the fox's razor sharp claws. The ensuing spurt of blood flew into his eyes, blinding him. It was only by luck that he managed to avoid a bite that passed right by his ear. Reeling away, the pain from his nose making him dizzy, he hoped that Leafpool had taken his advice and run.

A sharp pain from a sudden cut beneath his eye brought the sudden truth crashing down on him. No one was coming to save him, there would be no walking away from this battle unscathed. This was the ultimate test of his skill: a battle for his life.

The sudden realization of this made Lionpaw freeze in terror. He didn't want to die, not this young. He wasn't even a warrior yet! A snapping sound close to his tail jerked him back to reality. He could worry later, right now, he needed to concentrate entirely on fighting.

Leafpool stared on, her amber eyes wide. Trembling, she watched in horror Lionpaw fighting the fox, each time narrowly avoiding it's deadly bite. But Leafpool knew he couldn't continue like this forever, something somewhere had to give. The disease lent the fox a tireless fighting energy, but Lionpaw was already beginning to tire. Already, the misses were becoming narrower, and she could see him panting heavily from here. She knew that, if he didn't rest soon, he would die.

_But how am I to get him away? _she asked herself desperately. She knew that Lionpaw would lay down his life fro her or any other ThunderClan cat without hesitation. ThunderClan couldn't afford to lose that type of courage and dedication and courage.

It was while she was pondering this that a lithe silvery form flooded over the side of the Moonpool's hollow and launched itself onto the back of the fox, biting and scratching and tearing. The fox let out a high-pitched whine and rolled over onto it's back, trying to loose this unexpected adversary..

Lionpaw seized his chance and sliced open the fox's exposed belly. Blood swelled everywhere, and a great big spurt of it caught Lionpaw straight in the face before it began flowing freely from the wound. The blood-soaked corpse of the fox began to move and, utilizing the last of his remaining strength, Lionpaw helped to shift it off of the newcomer that had quite possibly saved his life.

The silver cat, quick as a fish, wriggled out from beneath the fox and turned to face Lionpaw and Leafpool. He had stony-blue eyes, and though his silver pelt was ragged, torn, and soaked red with fox blood, Leafpool got the impression that underneath all of that he was quite a handsome cat.

The stranger flicked a ragged ear and spat out a bloody tooth. Then, addressing the others, he meowed, "My name's Silverfish. Who're you?"

Lionpaw had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, so Leafpool answered for them both. "My name is Leafpool, and that's Lionpaw.'

Silverfish took one look at the gasping apprentice and meowed, "He needs to be healed. Is there any among you who knows how to heal wounds?"

"Of course," sniffed Leafpool, chagrined taht she hadn't thought of that first. "Follow me and I'll take you back to our camp." She ficked her tail for them to follow and led them out of the hollow, Lionpaw leaning heavily upon Silverfish for support. Glancing back, Leafpool saw the fox's blood pouring into the Moonpool, turning the normally clear water a faded crimson. She shuddered. _StarClan had blood on their paws._

---

When they stumbled back into camp, every cat was gathered in the clearing. It seemed as though the smell of blood and a stranger had foretold their arrival. Firestar raced forward towards them and, in a voice full of worry, asked, 'What happened? Who's this?"

"I'll tell you later," mumbled Leafpool. "Right now, I need to see to any wounds these cats have." Firestar stepped aside, and the other cats followed his example, leaving a clear path to Leafpool's den.

---

The scent of blood woke Hollypaw. Thinking that an enemy may have invaded the camp, she bolted upright and, flicking a piece of moss off of her ear, she scrambled out of the apprentice's den.

Already a great multitude of cats had gathered around, crowding together so that it made it difficult for Hollypaw to see what they were looking at. Jumping up and down in an attempt to see over the heads of the other cats didn't work, and not for the first time she wished that she commanded the respect of a leader. No cat in the Clan would dare to block her view then!

But, as it was, for now she was just a lowly apprentice who was too small to see over the crowd. Sighing, she halted her futile attempts and began to push her way through the crowd. It was difficult at first, but then she began to spot narrow pathways scattered among the shuffling bodies just large enough for her to squeeze through. Slipping through them, it wasn't long before she had brought herself up to the front of the crowd and could finally see what had gathered them all. What she saw shocked her.

Suddenly Hollypaw's world narrowed. The noise of all the other cats, so booming and deafening before, was now muted into hardly discernable background noise. To Hollypaw, all that mattered was her brother, Lionpaw, covered in blood and bleeding from what seemed a hundred gaping wounds. She felt sick, watching all that blood drip slowly onto the ground, leaving behind him a trail of red pawprints. Never in her young life had she seen so much blood before, and never did she wish to again.

"Don't worry," murmured a comforting voice in her ear, and Hollypaw turned to see Jaypaw sitting next to her, looking grim. "Most of that blood belongs to a fox. You can smell it's stink from here." As if to put emphasis on this, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Aren't you going to go help him?" asked Hollypaw, curious as to why Jaypaw was still sitting next to her.

"Aren't you?" he replied, fixing her with his sightless stare. "Why should I? Can't Leafpool handle this on her own? He's not even that badly hurt!"

"But you're the medicine cat apprentice!" gasped Hollypaw, disbelieving. "It's your duty!"

"Who said I was medicine cat apprentice?" he asked irately. "Hasn't Leafpool told you yet?"

"Told me what?"

"I'm not her apprentice anymore. Aren't you going to go find out what happened?" he asked, walking away.

Hollypaw nodded dumbly, at the moment too preoccupied with trying to figure out when Leafpool had lost her apprentice to argue. Besides, she really did want to know what had happened to her brother.

---

For Lionpaw, the world swam in and out of focus. When he could see, all he saw were shadowy figures and blurry images. Even the voices were distorted beyond either recognition or decipherability. When he attempted to concentrate on this, he got a feeling like his head was splitting open. After a while, he just found it easier to sink back into the blackness, silently watching as it took over the world he knew. Sighing softly, he allowed it to claim him.

---

Leafpool laid Lionpaw down in an empty nest, seeing to his wounds right away. Firestar, Squirrelflight, Brambleclaw, Hollypaw, and Jaypaw had followed them in, and Silverfish sat in the corner, watching. There wasn't much Leafpool could do for Lionpaw except dress his wounds. She would have to wait till she could get some water before washing off his pelt, and no herbs she knew of would bring him safely into conciousness.

"Leafpool," Firestar took a few steps towards his daughter, worry clouding his usually bright green eyes.

Turning to face her visitors, Leafpool met her father's concerned gaze. "Yes?" she asked, sounding tired.

"What happened?" burst out Squirrelflight, stepping forward to stand beside their father. "And how's this?" She jerked her tail in Silverfish's direction, sounding almost as if she were blaming him for Lionpaw's condition.

"I'm Silverfish," meowed the silver tom, bowing his head respectfully to Firestar. Then, having heard the accusation in Squirrelflight's voice, looked directly at her and added, "And if it weren't for me, Lionpaw would have died."

Squirrelflight averted her gaze and took a step back. Her tail twitched with embarrassment, and not for the first time, she regretted her argumentative nature.

Leafpool sighed. It seemed as if the time for telling the story had come. "I was visiting the Moonpool. Lionpaw must have followed me out of camp. I don't know, I just know that a rabid fox attacked me. It caught me unawares. It would've killed me if Lionpaw hadn't shown up.

Lionpaw began attacking it, and I warned him that it was infected with the crazy sickness. He didn't get bitten, but there were some narrow misses. We both would have died if Silverfish hadn't shown up and saved us."

"So he'll be okay?" asked Hollypaw eagerly, taking a step forward.

Leafpool nodded. She didn't want to worry Hollypaw by telling her that some of the froth from the fox's mouth had landed _in_ Lionpaw's wounds. The less cats worried, the better.

"What _were _you doing at the Moonpool, Leafpool?" asked Brambleclaw, speaking up for the first time. "I saw you leave. Cloudtail said that you told him that you were out getting herbs. Why would you lie to him?"

"Yes, Leafpool. Why would you lie to one of your own Clan's warriors? Unless you had something to hide." This last came from Jaypaw.

Leafpool's tail tip twitched nervously. She had hoped that wouldn't come up. Clearing her throat, she meowed, "I was talking with StarClan."

"Have you had a prophecy from StarClan?" asked Firestar anxiously.

"No," explained Leafpool swiftly. She didn't want her Clan worried about a nonexistant prophecy. "Anyway, what about isn't important. What's important is that Lionpaw get as much rest as possible."

Firestar dipped his head. "You're right, of course," he mewed. "Besides, I have other matters I need to see to. Chiefly, about our guest."

"Aren't you going to let him stay?" asked Hollypaw. She was looking forward to learning all she could from the mysterious stranger that had saved her brother. _Besides,_ she reasoned, _such information could be beneficial to the Clan._

"Normally, yes. But the Clan might have had all it can take of bringing in strangers. Remember, I might be Clan leader, but my actual leadership rests on the opinions of the Clan. Anyway, there's no need for you to worry about it." Flicking his tail at Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, and Hollypaw, he meowed, "Come on. Let's leave Leafpool in peace so she and Jaypaw can take care of their patient."

"I'm not staying here," announced Jaypaw, walking out of the den. Over his shoulder he announced, "I'll go get any herbs we might need, and this time I'll actually get them!" he added pointedly, causing Leafpool to wince.

Squirrelflight turned to Leafpool and asked, "What happened?" She knew that Jaypaw could be a difficult cat to handle, but not even he would be so pointedly rude for no reason. Besides, the distress waves she felt coming off of her sister were too pained for her to leave alone. She just had to know what was wrong.

Leafpool, her eyes full of pain and confusion as she stared after Jaypaw blinked and shook her head vigorously. "Nothing," she replied quietly. "Nothing at all."

---

Willowpaw lay on a rock that projected a short way out over the lake, admiring the way the sunlight glinted off of the waves. Or, at least, she _looked _like she was admiring the lake.

In reality, RiverClan's medicine cat apprentice was lost deep in thought. It had been fiive days since Mistyfoot's injury, and the deputy had healed up nicely, with just a slight soreness when she overexerted herself. But this wasn't what consumed Willowpaw's thoughts. No, what filled them was anxiety.

Tonight was the night of the Gathering. Willowpaw, of course, was going, as were Mothwing, Pebblepaw, Minnowpaw, Pouncepaw, Blackclaw, Voletooth, Mistyfoot, Mosspelt, Reedwhisker, and Dapplepaw. However, it was more of what was going to _happen _at the Gathering itself that concerned her.

Leopardstar had promised that, of course, WindClan would be made to atone for their trespassing and attack of a RiverClan patrol. But even this was far from Willowpaw's thoughts. No, what attracted all of her attention at the moment was a certain ThunderClan tom; Jaypaw.

She had had another dream about him last night, but this dream was different from all of the ones before, and it confused and scared her. In it, she had been padding along at night under the light of StarClan looking for herbs, when suddenly she had come across Jaypaw's scent.

Curious as to what he was doing, as well as scared stiff that her Clanmates would find her tracking him and notice the thrill of excitement that was travelling up her spine, she followed his scent trail. It led her far away from the lake, farther away than she had ever been before. She knew that she should be tired by now, but for some reason or other, she didn't_ feel _tired.

Cresting the top of some unknown hill she stopped, frozen, in her tracks. There, standing just a short ways from her at the foot of a dark forest, stood Jaypaw. He was just standing there, as if waiting for something or someone. Willowpaw tried to call out to him and longed to run down the hill to meet him, but couldn't move or speak. It was as if she was literally frozen.

Then, after a while, Jaypaw disappeared into the forest, and when Willowpaw tried to move, she found she could. Tumbling head over heels down the somewhat steep, rocky cliff she found the other side to be, she landed with a thud, covered in the scrapes and bruises which she knew should hurt, but for some reason didn't.

Rolling to her paws, she headed up to the forest. As she was nearing it, her neck fur unvolutarily rose, and her ears flattened themselves to her head. Still, she travelled onward, her heart compelling her paws forward until she was at the fringe. Taking deep, cautious breaths, her nose was flooded with a scent of abandonment, loss, danger, and, most of all, resentment.

Gulping audibly, she took a deep breath and gathered up all the courage she possessed._ If Jaypaw could go in there, I'm going too,_ she thought, taking a step forward under the dark, foreboding canopy of the strange woods.

The floor was cold, hard, and unyeilding. A windy echo travelled between the tall, widely spaced trees, and her ears twitched nervously when she heard it. It reminded her of the yowls of cats in deep, unbearable pain that no one, not even Death, could relieve. What Jaypaw could possibly want in as foreboding a place as this, she didn't know.

Looking upward, she gasped when she saw nothing but darkness hanging above her. Not even StarClan's light dared to penetrate these trees. Losing her nerve, she turned to leave, but found herself surrounded by trees on all sides. She was trapped!

Beginning to panic, she opened her mouth in a soundless mew, and to her horror heard it join the endless stream of voices in the wind. No matter which direction she turned, she was met with an impenetrable line of trees. And what was worse, they all seemed to be slowing but surely closing in on her.

She felt an uneasy tingling sensation along her spine. Looking up, she saw that the darkness was_ closer_ now. She blinked, and when her eyes were open again, it had descended fully around her, surrounding her in a sea of black. She tried to breathe, but she was suffocating, and soon she would die, alone and terrified in this unfamiliar place. It was with this realization that the dream had ended.

Willowpaw wondered if it had been a dream sent to her specifically from StarClan, warning her of what was to come if she pursued Jaypaw. Involuntarily, she shivered. It couldn't be all that bad, could it? Feathertail herself had told her that you couldn't help who you fell in love with. Surely StarClan couldn't be so cruel as to deny Willowpaw her heart's greatest desire, not when she had been so faithful to them for so long?

_But of course, I did know what I was committing myself to when I became Mothwing's apprentice._ The fact ran around in her head for a minute, and in due course she shook it off, but it kept returning to her, making her feel guilty.

"Willowpaw!"

The pleasantly surprised voice of one of her Clanmates roused the medicine cat apprentice out of her musings. Turning her head, she saw Pebblepaw standing on the part of her rock that came up out of the shore. Sighing, she turned away from him and flopped back down heavily. "What are you doing here, Pebblepaw?" she meowed tiredly.

"Oh, I don't know. Hunting," he answered, padding up until he was sitting right beside her. "Now, what's wrong with you? You look more down than a squirrel who's lost all it's nuts!"

"I've got a lot on my mind," replied Willowpaw, closing her blue eyes. "Now, I'm sure you've got better things to do with your time than worry over me and my problems."

Pebblepaw frowned slightly. "No, I don't. Listen, Willowpaw, you're my friend. I'm not just going to ditch you when you're feeling down. Nothing is more important to me than the feelings of my friends. So, I'm not leaving until you're nice and happy."

"That's sweet," mumbled Willowpaw, sounding almost as if she were asleep.

Pebblepaw's heart skipped a beat. That was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him, evenmoreso because it came from Willowpaw. He couldn't stand seeing her so depressed, and he began trying to think of ways to cheer her up. Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into his head.

Going behind her, he lowered his head and pushed her into the lake. Luckily for her, Willowpaw was a RiverClan cat and the water didn't bother her much, though the fall did.

Spluttering and spitting out lake water, she clawed her way to the surface. Finding her footing in the shallow water, she stood there, swaying gently in the rippling waves, glaring up at Pebblepaw, who was rolling around laughing. "What was that for!" demanded the pale gray she-cat, the fur plastered to her skin making her look thin and strangley.

"Oh, ha ha! Hee hee!" laughed Pebblepaw, to busy laughing to answer her question. He was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down his cheeks, and his entire body shook and rolled around with the force of his mirth. Of course, he had forgotten where he was. With a peal of laughter that turned into a yowl of surprise, he rolled right off of the edge of the rock and landed wiith a _Slpash! _in the lake beside Willowpaw.

The she-cat's whiskers twitched with distaste as even more cold water splattered onto her already drenched pelt. She smiled, however, as she saw the smaller, shocked-looking Pebblepaw emerge beside her. Flicking her tail, she headed for shore, head and tail held high in a haughty manner.

"What was the point of pushing me into the lake?" she asked, pausing in the licking of her flank as Pebblepaw splashed noisly up to her side.

"To cheer you up," he replied simply.

"Does it _look _like you cheered me up?" she asked, gesturing with her tail to her soggy pelt, the water still trickling off, forming a small puddle at her paws.

"Well, he considered, "At least you don't look all depressed anymore."

She had to laugh at that one. The image of Pebblepaw, shivering slightly in the chill caused by wet fur, still managing to smile and tell her how alive she looks when she's in the same predicament just compelled her to. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she meowed, flicking water off of one completely soaked paw.

"Of course I am!' retorted Pebblepaw, puffing out his chest in mock pride. "Hey," he added, "wanna race back to camp?"

"Sure! And we can dry our fur off along the way!"

"Last one there's a rotten fish!" With that, Pebblepaw took off, leaving a mockly indignant Willowpaw behind him.

"Hey!" she laughed, "Wait for me!" As she pelted off after him, she found herself grateful for having a friend as great as him.

**I must say, I really sympathize with Hollypaw in this chapter, when she can't see over the heads of her Clanmates. I usually don't personalize my writing, but I've experienced that so many times, I just had to include it. Yeah, I know, I'm really short. And you know what's really weird? All of my friends are taller than me. It's like they're all ridiculously tall. I mean, what the hell? But, yeah, enough of my short rant. Enough people have heard it anyway. **

** So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I think I just beat myself in the competition for long, wordy chapters. This is seriously the longest chapter I have ever written. Have a nice, tall, day, and don't forget to review.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Jaypaw flicked his tail in pleasure. He was actually going to get to _go_ to the Gathering tonight. He sighed in contentment as he fell into step beside his sister. He and Hollypaw were last in line. Ahead of them paced Berrypaw, Mousepaw, Sandstorm, Sorreltail, Brambleclaw, Honeypaw, Ashfur, Graystripe, Millie, Brackenfur, and Firestar.

Lionpaw was still resting in Leafpool's den. The medicine cat was still watching over him, as he hadn't woken at all since collapsing. Silverfish was asleep in her den with them, and Cloudtail had been left in charge of camp. Jaypaw didn't envy a single one of them, forced to stay behind instead of running beside their Clanmates.

The cats were just reaching the crossing of the tree-bridge that led to the Gathering island. Jaypaw hissed slightly as Hollypaw paused to help him across. _I can cross by myself, _he thought, scrabbling across the somewhat slippery surface of the tree-trunk.

Judging by the scents, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan were already here. Firestar led his cats straight to the center of the island, eager that ThunderClan not miss a moment of the Gathering.

Swarming up the tree trunk that all of the other leaders were already perched upon, Firestar took a seat on a branch just above Onestar, the WindClan leader. "Nice of you and your Clan to join us at long last, Firestar," growled Blackstar, letting out a yowl to silence all the other cats.

Jaypaw sat down wherever he happened to be standing. Sniffing to see whose company he had fallen into, he groaned silently when the scent of RiverClan washed over his nose and he recognized Willowpaw. Her scent brought back memories of what had happened the last time she had talked to him. She was the last cat he wanted to sit next to!

---

Willowpaw glanced over at Jaypaw, who was sitting next to her. The RiverClan medicine cat apprentice felt nervous. She hadn't seen Jaypaw since that day at the Moonpool, when she had opened her big mouth and made an utter fool of herself. She had dreaded seeing him since then, fearful of a rejection. However, he hardly seemed to notice Willowpaw was there, staring intently up at the leaders as Blackstar gave his report on ShadowClan.

The tip of her tail twiched, and she began to fidget. Restlessly she turned her head and looked at Jaypaw, still he paid her no attention. She couldn't stand it anymore!

Making sure that no one else was watching, she tapped her tail against Jaypaw's side to get his attention. Leaning closer, she whispered in his ear, "We have to talk. Meet me at the tree-bridge." His ear twitched, and she took that as a sign that he had heard. They were sitting pretty near the back of the multitude, so it wasn't hard for her to turn and slip away, unnoticed.

When she reached the tree-bridge she sat down and smoothed her chest fur with a few swift licks, trying to calm herself down. It didn't work. What if he didn't come? What if he_ did _come, but got mad at her? There were so many questions, but Willowpaw had none of the answers.

Sighing, she stood and began to pace around nervously, her tail lashing in agitation. She was so preoccupied by this that she hardly heard the gentle rustling of the undergrowth that heralded Jaypaw's arrival. Stopping, she turned to watch as he emerged and picked his way over to her.

"Okay, I'm here. What do you want?"

Willowpaw sighed again, this time in fustration. This wasn't exactly easy for her either! But instead she just asked, "Jaypaw, I-I have to know. J-Just tell me. How do you feel about me? Do you love me or--?" Willowpaw stopped, letting the question hang. She was afraid that if she went on tears would begin forming in her eyes, and that was the last thing she wanted.

Jaypaw growled in fustration. He felt like tearing up the grass beneath his paws._ This again!_ he thought angrily. _Why can't she just move on? _However, he knew the real reason he didn't want to answer her. He himself still wasn't entirely sure on what he felt for her.

On the one paw, she was a decent cat and he didn't exactly dislike her. Hollypaw liked her and would doubtless have many good things to say about her regarding character if Jaypaw ever bothered to ask. She was also very popular among all of the Clans and very few cats would be able to find fault with her.

On the other paw, her first impression had not been a good one, and like the stubborn cat he was, he held her to it. She didn't have the wit to stay out of other people's business, and she was kind of boring. Also, as evidenced by this little chat, she was knowingly going against the warrior code in pursuing a relationship with a tom who not only happened to be from another Clan, but like her also happened to be a medicine cat apprentice!

_No, wait, scratch that. It's more like ex-medicine cat apprentice,_ he corrected himself, remembering that he no longer termed himself as Leafpool's apprentice. _But still, it's pretty bad._

In short, he had no answer for her. While he didn't really dislike her, he didn't know her well enough _to _like her. Indecision clawed at his belly like a relentless badger, and her staring at him waiting for an answer didn't help.

Feeling as though he had to say_ something_, he began, "Willowpaw, look--"

A loud rustling sounded in the bushes, causing Jaypaw to stop midsentence. _Has someone been listening in on us? _he couldn't help but wonder. Nervous, the fur on the nape of his neck began to rise, and he sank his claws into the soft earth for comfort. If someone _had_ been listening in, then, depending on how much of the conversation they had heard, he may need to fight. Swiveling one ear backwards, he crouched lower to the ground.

Both he and Willowpaw were surprised when Minnowpaw popped out. The lithe black RiverClan apprentice didn't appear to notice Jaypaw at first, and instead turned straight to Willowpaw. "Hey, Willowpaw, Mothwing wants to see you. I think it may be urgent--Oh." She stopped, looking between Jaypaw and Willowpaw. Realization seemed to dawn on her, and a sudden grin split her face. Winking meaningfully at Willowpaw, she turned and meowed over her shoulder, "Forget about it! I'll tell Mothwing you're busy. Have fun!" Thin tail waving, Minnowpaw disappeared back into the undergrowth, and the sounds of her departure faded gradually as she made her way back to the Gathering.

As soon as she was sure her friend was out of earshot, Willowpaw turned back to Jaypaw and meowed, "I'm really sorry, Jaypaw. I had no idea she'd be following me. Please, continue."

"No, wait," said Jaypaw, eyes narrowed, "What was that grin for? She knows, doesn't she?"

"Now, wait, that's a pretty big leap to make," flustered Willowpaw, trying at once to both cover her embarrassment and protect her firend. "Besides, how do you know whether she smiled or not? You're blind, remember?"

"I may be blind, but I'm not stupid. And it's not that big a leap to make! She wasn't there long enough to hear us converse, and I definately know she wasn't there at the original confession! There's no other explanation!"

"I didn't tell her anything!"

"No, you're lying! Don't try to hide it! You told her, and you know it!"

"No, I didn't! Besides, I don't think it's any of your business--"

"No, forget it," cut in Jaypaw, eyes narrowed. "You know what, Willowpaw, I believe Mothwing was looking for you." With that, Jaypaw turned and went back to join the Gathering, leaving poor Willowpaw sitting alone by the tree-bridge, wondering what in StarClan's name had just happened.

---

After the Gathering, straggling along at the end of the long line of RiverClan cats returning to camp, was Willowpaw. she looked how she felt: utterly miserable. After Jaypaw had left her, she had sat by herself for a while, literally stunned and still a little angry. Then, her anger fading with exhaustion, she had decided that she couldn't sit there for the entire Gathering, and so had gotten up and rejoined it as well.

She had been about to sit down when she had bumped into Mothwing, who was, indeed, looking for her. As it turned out, Mothwing had just been worried about her, as she hadn't seen her at all since arriving at the Gathering. Willowpaw sighed wearily. Her mentor was beginning to get a little senile, she was so paranoid nowadays.

"Hey, Willowpaw," meowed a voice in Willowpaw's ear.

Startled out of her thoughts, the lithe gray she-cat turned adn saw Pebblepaw trotting along next to her. "Hi, Pebblepaw. I didn't see you at the Gathering. Where were you?"

"Me? Oh, I was hanging out with Dapplepaw and a bunch of ThunderClan apprentices. Mousepaw looked kind of disappointed that Minnowpaw hadn't joined us. Maybe I should tell her... Anyway, what's up with you? You seem so down nowadays."

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how paranoid Mothwing's becoming. You know, she spent most of the Gathering looking for me just because she hadn't seen me since we got there."

"Really?" asked Pebblepaw, laughing. "And we trust her with our lives?"

The two apprentices laughed for a while, and Willowpaw felt increasingly light-hearted. Pebblepaw really was a great friend. She was just about to tell him this when, underneath the hanging branches of a weeping willow, she spied a jay scratching at the ground for worms. However, the bank dropped away sharply near to where the bird was foraging, and it tripped and fell over the edge into the stream below. Momentarily forgetting about Pebblepaw, she rushed over and peered over the edge. What she saw shocked her.

The jay bird had been knocked on the head by one of the numorous pebbles littering the stream-bed, and the blood flowed from the cut on it's head into the current of the stream, contaminating it. As she watched, the bird's eye blinked open a crack, and she saw reflected there the same willow tree it had been hunting under. The eye glazed over and closed, and then the bird's lifeless body was washed away downstream, as if it had never been.

With a shudder, Willowpaw turned away and rejoined Pebblepaw on the walk back to camp. She didn't see the hawk's feather trapped beneath the pebble, hiding just beneath the surface.

---

Mothwing looked over the peacefully sleeping form of her apprentice, Willowpaw. However, the golden tabby she-cat was feeling anything but peaceful. She tired; she could feel the exhaustion tugging at her limbs, bringing to her a longing for her nest. Blinking her eyes, she struggled to stay awake. It wasn't as if she couldn't sleep, but more like she was scared to.

Mothwing had never believed in her warrior ancestors, or that they could visit her in dreams, but now, well, she wasn't quite so sure. Her dreams were haunting her, and she couldn't recall a single herb or plant that Mudfur had taught her about that could take away dreams.

The medicine cat felt herself drifting off, and immediately shook herself awake again. She couldn't allow herself to fall asleep. Not again, not now, not when _He _was waiting for her.

She walked out of the den into the clearing and looked upon the full moon. If she couldn't sleep, the least she could do was keep watch over the camp.

**Sorry it took so long for me to get this chapter up. I would have uploaded it a lot sooner if FanFiction hadn't glitched while I was in the middle of saving it. So I've had to waste time re-typing up something I'd already typed up to perfection, and I'm pretty short on time anyway. Oh, yeah, and now you guys have completely caught up to where I am in writing this thing right now, so updates are going to be even less frequent as I scurry to write more chapters. I have absolutely no idea where this thing is going right now, so I'm just going to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Who knows? I might actually surprise myself!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** **I return. The story returns. Jaypaw being a jerk returns. The only thing that doesn't? Lost time. Only a time machine can bring that back, and that'll take so much time I won't even bother. So here's another chapter, hope you enjoy.**

Chapter Ten

The walk back to ThunderClan's camp was perhaps one of the longest Jaypaw had ever experienced. Having to face Willowpaw had not helped. At all. He didn't know why, but somehow that she-cat just managed to get under his pelt. all her talk of being in love with him, and now this. He felt he could kill her round about now.  
It was bad enough that she had had to go and confess to him in the first place, that, at least, he could handle. But to then go ahead and tell Minnowpaw, of all cats? True, it wasn't as if he exactly knew her, but, if she was anything at all like her Clanmates, then he could be sure that she was extremely nosy and a complete blabber mouth. _Great. Just great, _he thought to himself, rolling his eyes as he did so.  
Plodding tiredly up to the apprentice's den, he paused to yawn. All he wanted right now was a good night's sleep. Something to clear his head so he could sort this all through in the morning. _Just what else could go wrong, exactly?_  
It was then that he heard a voice he _really_ did not want to hear at this point.  
"Jaypaw?" It was his mother, Squirrelflight, and he was sure that whatever it was she had to say would not be something he wanted to hear. No she-cat had ever said anything to him that he wanted to hear.  
"_What!_"he snapped, wheeling round to face her. He seriously was not in the mood right now.  
"I was just wondering, well, you see, I've been talking to Leafpool and..." That was not the right thing to say. Jaypaw's mood darkened considerably at the mention of his ex-mentor and Squirrelflight, seeming to sense this, attempted quickly to backtrack. "What I meant is, you've been acting kind of weird lately. And as your mother I'm just a tad concerned.." That, too, had been the wrong thing to say. Squirrelflight would have attempted for a third time to get out what was on her mind, but Jaypaw cut in too quickly.  
"So what did you mean, _mother_? That you finally noticed that not everything's all a nice sea of freshly-killed mice and the first thing you decide to do about it is talk to_ Leafpool_? What about me? I'm your _son_!_ I'm_ the one you were concerned about, and instead of just asking me what the bloody problem was, you went behind my back to talk to_ Leafpool!_" He waited, quite impatiently, for her to find her tongue and supply him with a good enough answer. The fur along his spine was tingling, and his sightless eyes were narrowed in light of this newest occurrence. StarClan, was he tired of getting angry!  
"Well, actually, I only went to Leafpool because she seemed to be feeling pretty rotten herself!" said Squirrelflight, feeling her own fur beginning to fluff up. She was Firestar's daughter, the medicine cat's sister, and a senior warrior on top of that. She didn't need to take this kind of attitude from anybody, least of all her own _son_. "And I can tell you, Jaypaw, I was quite surprised to hear what was at the root of her troubles. You don't even bother to _think_ about the feelings of others before you act, do you?"  
Jaypaw really was getting tired of this. He didn't want to dwell on problems that in his mind had already been sorted out, he just wanted to get some rest. Besides, what right did she have to belittle him, when she was guilty of some of the same crimes herself? "Yeah, well, it's not as if you've never done that, now is it?" For once he was glad of his prickly tongue as, for the second time in the same night, he stalked angrily away and left a somewhat confused and hurt-looking she-cat behind him.  
He was really getting sick of this.

Hollypaw sat watching over Lionpaw. Her brother had woken earlier that morning, drank some water off a ball of moss, and then drifted off back to sleep. The small black she-cat was still rather worried about him, as it was unlike her brother to be so tired, but Leafpool had assured her he was just being a lazy furball, and he was going to be perfectly fine.  
Hollypaw kind of doubted this, for though Jaypaw had been right when he said that most of the blood covering Lionpaw had belonged to a fox, the image of her brother's body, covered in blood, still haunted her mind. Shaking her head to free herself of such a wretched image, and feeling bored, Hollypaw gently poked her brother's golden tabby flank with one of her slim forepaws, pausing as he twitched and mumbled something incoherent under his breath. She waited awhile, and when he refused to get up, she poked him again, this time a little harder. One of his golden yellow eyes opened a crack.

"Hollypaw, is that you?" His voice sounded rather hoarse from lack of recent use, and he hadn't even made an attempt to sit up yet.

"Of course it's me, you lazy furball! Who else would sit around waiting for you to wake up? And now that you are awake, you can get up. Poor Leafpool's been forced to work around you all day and most of yesterday, and it's nearly sunhigh, too."

"Nearly sunhigh!" yelped Lionpaw, startled, as he made a vigorous effort to sit up. However, not having used his leg muscles for such a period of time, they completely failed him and he ended up slumping back into his nest.

The look of abject worry on his face caused a purr of amusement to well up inside Hollypaw's throat and, brushing her tail tip lightly against his nose, she said in a laughing tone, "Perhaps you'd better eat first, huh? Stay here, and I'll go fetch you a mouse from the fresh-kill pile."

"Okay, but make sure it's nice and juicy!" cried Lionpaw after her as she turned to go.

"Sure thing!" Hollypaw called back over her shoulder, her good mood still prevailing. Trust Lionpaw to be such a glutton! Purring happily, she made her way over to the fresh-kill pile, and was about to select one of the more delectable-looking mice when she heard the distinctive voices of both Graystripe and Firestar. She was about to completely disregard them and hurry on when she made out a quieter, less recognizable voice.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she held off on her task for a moment and looked over at the entrance to the camp, where the voices were coming from. Firestar and Graystripe her sitting by the entrance, exchanging what appeared to be pleasantries with an unfamiliar silver cat. It took her a while to recognize Silverfish.

Forgetting Lionpaw's mouse, she moved closer to better listen in on their conversation. She found herself hoping that Firestar was extending an invitation to the loner to stay. Not only had she not yet thanked him for the role he played in saving her brother's life, but she was still interested in learning more about him. _One can never know too much_, she thought happily to herself, sneaking closer as she did so.

"...I'm sorry I can't exactly offer for you to stay right now," said Firestar, looking apologetic but also slightly relieved. "Under normal circumstances I would, but there's too much tension among the Clans without introducing a stranger."

"I understand perfectly, Firestar," meowed Silverfish pleasantly. "No need to feel bad about it. I'm afraid I would have had to decline the offer anyway. I have unfinished business of my own to take care of." This last was said in a rather melancholy manner, and Hollypaw noted the slightly uncomfortable looks on both Firestar and Graystripe's faces.

"Right. Well, I suppose that's that. Thank you for saving the lives of both my daughter and my grandson, the thanks of all of ThunderClan go with you, and if there's ever anything you need help with, know that ThunderClan is always here."

"Thank you for that, I'll keep it in mind," mewed Silverfish, then, with a courteous exchange of nods, Silverfish turned and left. Firestar and Graystripe, after making sure he had completely disappeared up the tunnel, turned as well and headed towards Firestar's den, their heads bent together as they talked in low whispers. Hollypaw barely spared them a second glance before she disappeared up the tunnel after Silverfish.

It wasn't long before Hollypaw caught up to Silverfish. He didn't seem in any particular rush, and was barely past the training hollow when Hollypaw almost crashed into him. He had been sitting with his back turned to her, and it was only by luck that she managed to stop herself in time.

"Ah, Hollypaw. I was wondering when you'd show yourself. You want to thank me for that business with the fox, correct?" He smiled at the look of wonderment she was giving him.

"Yes, yes I did," she said, struggling to retain her composure. "But also, I wanted to ask you some questions."

"Oh, you did? What sort of questions?" He seemed rather surprised, but pleasantly so. Hollypaw hoped this was a good sign.

"Just about what it's like not being part of a Clan and stuff. Also, what's it like not living by the lake. I've never been anywhere else, and it's so rare we see an outsider these days and, well, I'm just rather curious." She ended her barrage feeling rather embarrassed, she didn't mean to sound nosy, and hoped he understood that her curiosity came from a deep desire to learn. Nervously she stared down at her paws, waiting for him to laugh. She was quite surprised when he didn't.

"Hmm. Well, I'm not too sure if I have time to answer all of that, but who knows? I haven't actually had time to look around much yet, but I do understand your curiosity. Tell you what: You go back to your camp now, and I'll see what I can do about sticking around for a while. Okay?"

Hollypaw nodded, but she didn't see how her going back to camp would get any of her questions answered. "So, are you coming back to camp too?" she asked, meeting his blue eyes with her own steady green gaze.

"Ah, no. I think Firestar made it painfully clear that he didn't want me sticking around, and I'm loathe to stay where I'm not wanted. I'll find other quarters for the time being. Just don't tell him I'm planning to stick around for a while longer. Something tells me he won't be exactly pleased. I'll find a way to meet up with you whenever you're not busy." He sat down and nonchalantly scratched behind his ear, waiting for her to leave.

Hollypaw was just about to turn and head back to camp when she remembered something that Silverfish might find useful. "Oh, and I'd better warn you, ThunderClan aren't the only cats to make their home by the lake, and the other four Clans don't owe you anything, so chose wisely where you plan to spend the night!"

"Alright, thanks!" called Silverfish, blinking gratefully at her. "Now get on home. I'm sure they're missing you over there."

Hollypaw nodded and trotted off happily, unaware of the sad look that had crept into Silverfish's eyes.

**Author's Note: In which we learn some more about Silverfish, and begin to wonder whether Lionpaw will ever get his mouse.**

** I would just like to say that the beginning scene of this chapter has always been planned, just in a slightly different way than how it turned out. When I first wrote this (before I lost it) their argument was more about Squirrelflight and Leafpool trying to meddle in Jaypaw's life, and Jaypaw originally ended it by proclaiming that he didn't care what anyone thought, it was his life, and he'd live it as he saw fit. Needless to say some changes have been made. First of all, the original was lengthier, second of all, Squirrelflight was a complete wuss, and third of all a lot of the original gist ended up being taken out of the argument. It was originally far more epic, and left behind a lot more confusion to Squirrelflight. But, you know, I forget. I haven't even looked at this thing for over a month, and my original files died long before then, so this is what you get after I've spent a couple of hours playing around with words. After all this time, these are the ones that just fit.  
**

** I sincerely hope that makes sense to all you people. Now, I'd better stop, before this Note ends up being longer than the entire chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** **It is now time for Chapter Eleven. I won't bore you with how long it took me to even come up with ideas for this chapter, but I really do hope it's worth it.  
**

Chapter Eleven

"Lionpaw!"

The golden tabby apprentice blinked sleepily and lifted his head at the sound of his mentor's voice drifting in through the tendrils of bramble that surrounded the apprentice's den. He was just about to settle back down and go to sleep when he heard Ashfur's voice once again. His mentor sounded way more annoyed, and this time he shot to his paws, shaking scraps of moss out of his pelt as he rushed out of the den. He didn't even pause to smooth out his pelt with a couple of licks, keeping his mentor waiting was not something he wanted to be accused of doing.

"Oh, so there you are, finally," meowed Ashfur with a roll of his eyes as he saw his apprentice exit the den. "I was beginning to think you had died in there. Anyway, we're doing battle training today. We should have the training hollow all to ourselves, so hurry up and grab something to eat. I want an early start."

Lionpaw twitched an ear in his mentor's direction to show he'd heard, then he turned and headed to the fresh-kill pile, being sure to wait until his back was turned before rolling his own eyes in exasperation at Ashfur's impatience. Despite the fact that he and his mentor weren't especially close, Lionpaw couldn't help but look forward to this early morning battle practice. Fighting was something he felt he did exceptionally well, and he wanted a chance to show off. With that in mind, he took the smallest piece of fresh-kill he could find on the pile, an especially scrawny shrew, as it turned out, and finished it in a couple of bites.

Licking any of the excess juices off his lips, he curled his tail up and headed over to Ashfur, his amber eyes lit up with eager anticipation. The pale gray warrior had been waiting by the entrance to camp, and when he saw Lionpaw headed towards him he stood and headed up the tunnel, not even waiting for his apprentice and leaving the golden tabby to race after him in order to catch up.

When Lionpaw arrived panting at the training hollow, Ashfur was already sitting there waiting for him, thin tail curled unconcernedly over his paws and a look of boredom on his face. Lionpaw cleared his throat to get the tom's attention, and Ashfur looked over at him, saying "Ah, took you long enough. We're going to begin with some warm-up exercises, so let's begin, shall we?"

Without further ado, the pale gray warrior slid neatly into a crouch and, with a slight wriggle of anticipation, launched himself at his apprentice. Lionpaw saw him coming and ducked, sliding underneath him as he did so, however, the older cat was much quicker on his feet than the golden tabby tom had given him credit for, and whirled around expertly to deal a blow to the back of the apprentice's head. Lionpaw wasn't expecting this, and fell heavily to the ground. He knew it was over now. As soon as Ashfur pinned him down, there'd be no getting up. As the pressure of the gray tom's paw on the back of his neck pushed him further into the sandy ground of the hollow, he gritted his teeth, as much to stop himself from tasting dirt as to stop himself from snapping back at Ashfur's smug words.

"Well well, I suppose even the sons of deputies can be so easily beaten," sneered the senior warrior, allowing his claws to slide out just enough to brush Lionpaw's pelt before fully sheathing them again. "Tell me, Lionpaw, how does it feel to be thrown into the dirt, like just another annoyance to be gotten rid of? Your mother would be so proud, wouldn't she?" He spat the word "mother" as if it left a vile taste in his mouth, and Lionpaw couldn't stop a feeling of unease from coming over him. He didn't like the way this conversation was going, and he didn't like the fact that he was essentially trapped in here alone with Ashfur.

Desperately, the ginger tom struggled to get free, and, as if his struggles had reminded Ashfur of where they were, his mentor immediately took his paw off the younger cat's neck, shaking himself as he did so. Gasping for breath, as his nose now had a fair bit of dirt shoveled in it, Lionpaw clambered unsteadily to his paws and immediately began pawing at his face, trying to free the sand from his nostrils. When he was done, he turned angrily on his mentor, who was gazing rather shame-faced at his paws. "What was that for?" he demanded, amber eyes blazing as they met Ashfur's pale gray pelt, "And what was that you were saying about my mother?"

During the questioning, Ashfur had remained gazing solidly at the ground, but as soon as Lionpaw stopped talking, he looked up to meet his apprentice's eyes with his own, and what Lionpaw saw there immediately made anything else he may have said die on his tongue. The warrior's eyes were a swirl of emotions; sadness, anger, hate and helplessness all claiming a spot in the tom's bitter blue gaze. Lionpaw immediately wished that the past few seconds had never happened. That he had never had to see that look in his mentor's eyes. He wished that he could just look away and pretend none of this had ever happened, but before he could, Ashfur spoke, and his words put a halt to anything Lionpaw may have said.

His voice was barely above a whisper, and Lionpaw had to lean forward and strain his ears to hear it, but eventually he managed to get, "Do you want to know the truth about your mother?"

Part of him wished desperately not to embark upon this conversation, but another, greater part of him was eager to find out what it was about his mother that caused Ashfur such mixed emotions. Not daring to speak, he nodded, silently, for the tom to continue. Ashfur obliged, and chose a blunt opener for his tale that immediately had all of Lionpaw's attention.

"Your mother is the cause of all my unhappiness. It wasn't always like this. I used to believe she was a decent cat, especially when she went on the journey to the sun-drown-place and helped save the Clans. Brave, resourceful, I regarded her as all of those things, though after the journey when she made it clear she wanted to be with Brambleclaw I respected her choice. They really seemed made for each other, and I wasn't about to force my way between their happiness. Of course, all that changed when we arrived at the lake." The wistfulness in Ashfur's tone surprised Lionpaw, and the golden apprentice had no trouble at all matching his own picture of his mother with the one painted of her by Ashfur. By all accounts, surely, Squirrelflight was a remarkable warrior, and that's what made it so hard for Lionpaw to make the connection between his mother and Ashfur's unhappiness.

"You see, apparently, despite everyone feeling assured that your parents were definitely going to end up together, they apparently had different plans in mind, and got into a fight soon afterwards. Squirrelflight claimed that Brambleclaw was not a cat she knew anymore, and that she could no longer trust him. And guess whose shoulder she ended up crying on after all that!" The sudden bitterness that entered the narrative at this point was matched by a flash of anger in Ashfur's blue eyes. "Me! That's who! Everything would have been fine, if only she'd left me out of it. But did she? No! She had to go and use me. Use me! Just to try and make Brambleclaw jealous. She didn't even care about what she made everybody else feel. What she made _me_ feel. She had me wrapped around her paw, pretended she cared about me, made me care about her, made me _love_ her.

"And then what did she do? When Brambleclaw came crawling back to her, did she tell him she was over him? That she had found someone else? No! She didn't even have the decency to notify me before she dumped me for him. She didn't even care that I still had feelings for her. That I still loved her, even after she had broken my heart. And then, when she announced that she was pregnant with Brambleclaw's kits. That's when I truly began to hate her. I wanted to cause her pain, as much pain as she'd caused me. She wanted to pretend that the entire thing had never happened, that I was no-one to her, never would be and never was. She's been doing that ever since then. Pretending, while those around her only get hurt more."

Lionpaw stared aghast at his mentor, who had gone back to staring at the ground, lost in his memories. The memory of those haunted blue eyes, staring at something further away than Lionpaw could imagine, still remained strongly imprinted on his mind. Nervously, he backed up towards the exit, saying as he did so, "Well, I just, uh, be going. I'll see you later!" With that he turned tail and scurried off into the forest to hunt, leaving Ashfur alone with his memories of days long past.

-sc-

Meanwhile, Jaypaw had been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to hunt for quite a while. His nose told him he was near the WindClan border. It also told him that the scurrying sounds fading into the distance belonged to a mouse, and that that mouse of the tenth piece of prey he had failed to catch today. Swearing, he strained his senses, determined to catch _something _before going back to camp. Ever since he had quit being Leafpool's apprentice, he hadn't really had anything to do besides hunt, and it was becoming painfully clear to him that, even with Hawkfrost's training, that was not something that came easily to him. And it wasn't as if he could really do anything else. After him having been the medicine cat apprentice, his Clanmates were rather unsure how to treat him, and never invited him to go on patrol or train with any of the other apprentices. He hadn't expected the transition to be this hard, and had to admit to himself that he had thought that the only hard part would be getting everyone else to accept his decision. Everything else he thought would just come naturally.

Sighing, he immediately perked up again as the scent of a nearby ThunderClan patrol drifted past. _Must be Dustpelt's_, he thought remembering that Brambleclaw had assigned the senior warrior a patrol along the WindClan border. Taking another sniff, he caught the scents of the rest of the patrol, made up of Sandstorm, Thornclaw, Honeypaw, Hazelpaw and Poppypaw. He was just going to wait for them to pass by when he was hit by sudden inspiration. Just because he seemed particularly useless at everything else, didn't mean he couldn't patrol well. _In fact_, he thought, _I'm probably better suited for patrol than all these cats, because my senses are sharper than all of theirs._

Satisfied on this point, he held his tail high and sauntered out of the bushes to meet the patrol. He could hear that they were startled to come across him, and a few moments later Dustpelt asked, "What brings you here Jaypaw?"

Jaypaw let out an exasperated sigh and replied, "What do you think? I'm here to join your patrol. And before you ask, no, Firestar didn't send me, I just figured patrolling was something a little more suited for my talents than hunting." He felt like rolling his eyes, as he traced the thought patterns going through their heads at this last statement, and just on cue Poppypaw finally burst out:

"But you're _blind_! How could _you _be any help on a patrol?" Jaypaw sensed Thornclaw going to rebuke his apprentice, but interrupted before the golden tabby tom could even begin.

"Don't try to rebuke her, when you were all thinking it! I know I'm blind, but so what? I can still sense stuff, you know." _And I can probably do it a whole lot better than you_, was a part of his sentence he didn't consider it wise to add on. When the rest of the cats just stood there, looking rather ashamed of themselves, Jaypaw flicked his tail impatiently and asked, "Well? Are we going to get on with this patrol or aren't we?"

Jaypaw sensed Dustpelt's shrug, and the patrol moved on, Jaypaw attaching himself neatly at the end. _At least this will be more useful than anything else I've done recently_, thought the gray tabby tom, listening with half an ear to Honeypaw and Poppypaw's excited conversation.

-sc-

Lionpaw came back into camp, his head held high and his jaws stuffed with prey. He had had to make three trips to bring back what he had caught since that morning, and it was now just a little before sun-down. This latest batch included three mice and a squirrel, and Lionpaw decided that instead of putting them on the fresh-kill pile, he'd go see to it that the elders and queens were fed, and then he'd settle down with something for himself.

When he got to the elder's den, he was relieved to see that Mousefur was asleep. The elder was grumpy enough without having him to take it out on. Dipping his head to Longtail, he left him with two of the mice and padded on to the nursery, where even from a distance he could hear Ferncloud and Daisy trying to quiet Foxkit and Icekit. Smiling, he padded over and stuck his head in through the entrance, offering the two queens the remaining mouse and squirrel. Daisy blinked appreciatively at him and took the mouse for herself, while the two kits fell upon the squirrel. Leaving, he headed for the fresh-kill pile and selected for himself a nice plump vole.

Looking around for a place to sit, he noticed Jaypaw sitting alone by the apprentice's den, gulping down a thrush. Padding over, he dropped his vole nearby and meowed, "Hey, mind if I join you?" Jaypaw shook his head and moved over to make room for his brother. The two ate in silence for a while, then Lionpaw looked up and said to Jaypaw, "You know, I think Ashfur has bees in his brain."

"What makes you say that?" asked Jaypaw, looking up. He had feathers stuck to his muzzle, a few of them drifting dizzily to the ground as he gave his head a rapid shake to dislodge them.

"Well, earlier today, he was going on about our mother, and said that she was once in love with him, but when she became mates with Brambleclaw, she broke his heart." Lionpaw looked anxiously at Jaypaw, hoping his brother would reassure him that Ashfur's story wasn't anything worth worrying about. It had disturbed the golden tom, but he couldn't bring himself to completely disbelieve it, especially not after what he had seen in the pale gray tom's blue eyes.

However, all Jaypaw said was "Ah," as if Ashfur's story explained some missing part of a puzzle.

This puzzled Lionpaw, and he was about to ask Jaypaw exactly what he meant by it when he was interrupted by Brackenfur. The golden-brown tabby tom looked worried, and didn't even bother to greet them properly before asking, "Have you two seen Hollypaw? I haven't seen her all day."

The two looked at each other, the worry plain on both of their faces. It was Jaypaw who finally said, "We haven't seen her either, but we'll help you look for her." So saying, he and Lionpaw padded over to some of the other apprentices and began questioning them, while Brackenfur did the same with a couple of nearby warriors. Looking up at the shining stars of Silverpelt that were just beginning to emerge, Lionpaw hoped that nothing bad had happened to his sister. Something bad just _couldn't _happen to her. They had a prophecy to fulfill, after all.

**Author's Note: Okay, so Jaypaw tries to branch out, Lionpaw gets a history lesson, and Hollypaw goes missing. A bit cramped all for one chapter, but it wouldn't work any other way.  
**

**Also, I have to say, I seriously wasn't expecting the scene between Ashfur and Lionpaw to turn out so... bitter. I mean, seriously, it wasn't supposed to get that serious, or emotional, at least not so quickly, but things just sort of... happened. That's the way the words chose to come out, and I have to say, I'm not all that unhappy with it, though in the original version, before my cat deleted it all, Ashfur was in great danger of turning his apprentice thoroughly against him. Ah well, at least now he's a little less out and out creepy. In the original version, it sounded as if Ashfur was planning to do something horrible to Lionpaw, and I'm sincerely glad I got the chance to fix that. At least now I have openings for more plotlines and such. More messes to clean up. Just what I need. Stay tuned for Chapter Twelve! It's probably going to be very long and I'm not going to enjoy working on it at all, but I'll try to keep it interesting.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: I'm going back to my old format. I realize Chapters Ten and Eleven were a diversion from this. I also realize that that was a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake that shall never be made again. Also, I'm sorry for the overly long delay on the submitting of this chapter. Life happens, and it took my muse along with it (mainly because I've been working on something more original, and the research for it has been a real time-eater and pain in my behind, but that is a story for another time). **

**However, for this chapter, I'm back now, and hopefully won't go away for so long ever again (I mean it, I don't even know what I was planning for this story). On another note, let's see what's going on with Hollypaw.**

Chapter Twelve

The sun had barely made its presence known above the horizon before Hollypaw was sneaking out of camp, slinking behind the nursery and scaling the rock walls of the camp to avoid detection by Sorreltail, who was on guard duty. She'd never gone this way before, but she had noticed that the cliff-face on this side of camp seemed to have more paw-holds than anywhere else in camp, and besides, it was the perfect way to go if a cat wished to avoid being seen. Which Hollypaw did. Very much so.

She knew what she was doing was against the rules. She was, in actuality, _painfully_ aware of that fact, her conscious willing her paws to turn right around and pad back into the apprentices' den, to await orders from her mentor, Brackenfur, which is what all the good apprentices would be doing. However, her curiosity pulled her forward. Silverfish had promised to tell her things, things she could never hope to discover on her own, and she had every intention of learning them. Her heart ached that, for just this once, she wasn't going to be the good, obedient cat she wished to be. _Was_, she reminded herself. But even the warrior code had to have exceptions for the pursuit of knowledge.

Grunting, she pulled herself precariously up the cliff-face, almost slipping once or twice when she placed her paws on a non-existent ledge. It was harder than she would have guessed, and she had to keep fighting her urge to look down. Getting completely freaked out and unable to move would _not_ help her.

_Almost there. Almost there._ She kept saying this to herself, her own private mantra, until she managed to hook a paw over the top and, with a lot of grunting and near-silent cursing involved, pulled herself up to the forest floor. Sitting down heavily, she let out a sigh of relief and allowed herself a moment to regain her breath and take stock of her surroundings. This part of the forest was thicker than that that the cats encountered when they left camp the usual way, and when she looked up, the first thing she noticed was a huge block of trees staring her down. They seemed taller than she remembered, and the fact that they were surrounded by early morning mist didn't help her impression of them at all. Nervously, she began backing up, that is, until she felt the ground begin to disappear from under her paws. Hastily, she lurched back forward, and gave herself a shake to rid herself of her sudden irrational fear.

_You're just nervous, is all_, she told herself, proceeding forward with a haste born of hesitation. She had never done anything even remotely like this before, and her guilt was making her jumpy. She wondered briefly where she was to find Silverfish, exactly. He had promised her that he would hang around somewhere where she would be able to find him, but he had never told her where. Thinking that a patrol would definitely find him if he remained anywhere on Clan territory, Hollypaw decided that she would begin her search at the very edge of ThunderClan territory.

At first she started at every small sound, whether it be caused by squirrel, mouse, or even a slight breeze blowing through the trees. At one point, she accidentally stepped on a twig and caused herself to jump up quite a few feet in the air. It was painfully obvious by this point that she really wasn't meant for sneaking around, but her curiosity pulled her forward, and she was loathe to stop, despite what all her common sense was screaming at her.

It wasn't long before she was far enough from camp for her noise not to matter. And that was a good thing, for the way Hollypaw's nerves were acting up right now, she wouldn't be surprised if the whole of ThunderClan could hear her. Jumpy as she was, she managed to keep her head and focused on her goal. She crept through the forest, her nerves calming the farther away she got from the camp. She was had almost reached the edge of the territory when she heard a voice, soft and muted, hissing her name. Startled she whirled to face it, and found herself nose to nose with the very cat she had been looking for.

"Silverfish! What are you still doing on Clan territory?"

"Waiting for you, of course," answered the silver tabby, his voice calm and smooth despite the fact that he was trespassing. He saw the look of aghast incomprehension on Hollypaw's face, and chuckled softly to himself. "Don't look at me like that, Hollypaw. This is a free world and I'm a free cat, able to do as I please when I please. And that includes setting paw wherever I happen to want. Every cat is born free. No one owns us but ourselves, and as such no one has a right to tell us what we should or should not do. Now, what do you think about that?" He sat back on his haunches and looked at her as he asked this question, straight on, with a friendly and encouraging blink.

Hollypaw looked at the ground, suddenly unsure of herself. That question had made her nervous, and the fact that she was sitting here talking with a stranger on ThunderClan territory didn't make her feel any better. She felt her staring at him, awaiting an answer. Suddenly it felt rather hot under her thin black pelt.

"I-I suppose that's true. Of Clan cats at least. Not kittypets. Kittypets are just slaves to their twolegs." She made a disgusted face as she mentioned the kittypets. How any cat could allow themselves to have their lives so completely controlled by another being, and by a twoleg at that! She could never understand.

"But wasn't your own leader once a kittypet?" The question betrayed nothing except a quiet curiosity. Hollypaw glared at him anyway.

"How did you know that?" she asked, taking a step or two away from him. This had _not_ been a good idea.

"Never mind how I know," he said, trying to put her at ease once again. "Let's just say that we have mutual friends, your grandfather and I." He blinked again and smiled, as though to tell her that that would be the end of that. "Now, about Clan cats being free." He smiled again. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Why shouldn't I?" demanded Hollypaw, the fur along her back and tail rising. This whole interview was making her feel really uncomfortable, and she began to wish that she had never set paw out of camp this morning. "We are free. I think you had better leave our territory. Now."

"But why should I?" asked Silverfish, sounding rather bemused, turning her own question against her. With his typical serenity he looked around them, at the lush forest with all the sounds of prey filling the air. "This is a very nice place. And who are you to claim it for your own, and deny it to others? Don't you see, Hollypaw? That is why you are not free, despite your claims. You Clan cats are too tied to your rules and your hierarchy and your dead ancestors to be truly free. Tell me, Hollypaw. Would you like to be free?"

This last question was more than Hollypaw could take. She forgot about wanting to learn things from this cat. She forgot about how he had saved both Lionpaw and Leafpool's lives. She forgot everything except that she was a ThunderClan cat on ThunderClan ground, and Silverfish was an intruder. With a yowl more desperate and confused than angry she launched herself at him, aiming for his neck with claws unsheathed. He moved a split-second before she would have hit him, and she landed hard, scattering fallen leaves about her.

Confused, she whirled to look for him, and found him staring at her from a couple of paw-steps away, his own harmless smile still playing about his face. "Really Hollypaw," he began, not even pretending to sound hurt, "was that really necessary?" Before she could make a reply, or even think about making one, he was attacking her, and it was all she could do to fend off the worst of his blows. She was small and quick, but none of that seemed to be making any difference in this fight. _This is the same cat that killed a rabid fox_, she reminded herself, giving ground with every swipe he made in her direction. _There's no way I'll beat him like this!_

Never before had she wished that she was as good at fighting as Lionpaw. This fight would be easy for him. For her it was terrible. His blows hit her more often than not, and she had no room and no time to make any counterstrikes of her own. It was time for her to try a different approach. Considering quickly, she waited until he had both forepaws off the ground, intending to pin her down, and instead she ran straight into him, bowling him over with the force of her charge. He took the hit and was sent rolling, but before she could make a clean break, he wrapped his forepaws around her, hugging her to him. She was trapped.

Their directionless rolling soon turned into a roiling, screeching ball of fur and claws and teeth as Hollypaw fought desperately to free herself, kicking biting and scratching wherever she saw an opening, and Silverfish fought to keep her. At one point Hollypaw found herself biting her own leg in the confusion. With a frustrated howl she struggled and managed to free her head from his crushing embrace. Faced with this sudden freedom, she made an immediate lunge for his throat and managed to catch hold of it. Silverfish went limp.

Wary of a trick, but unsure of what to do next, Hollypaw risked loosening her grip to ask, "If I let you go, will you leave ThunderClan territory and never come back?" After a pause of a few tense moments, she felt him nodding weakly. With a sigh of relief, she released her grip on him and, seeing him fall limply to the ground, she turned to leave, feeling her duty done. She never heard him until it was too late. And by then, she was already falling, falling deep into a hole in the ground she had never known existed. The last thing she remembered before the sudden burst of pain of hitting her head on a rock was a long, long tunnel with light at the end of it, and at the end of the light, Silverfish's silhouette, leaving her behind.

**Author's Note: And we now get to discover exactly what happened to Hollypaw. Good, innit? I read **_**The Fountainhead**_** recently, and I do believe Silverfish is channeling Howard Roark. Also, sorry if there's an abrupt change in style in here. I've been writing more for comics than novels recently (not to mention the fact that I haven't written for **_**Warriors**_** since I put this on hiatus), and I think it shows.**

**Also, just to be clear: This chapter sort of wrote itself this way, and I'm honestly fresh out of ideas to how else it could have gone, plus I had to reread through my entire story just so I was refreshed on what was going on (and God! the errors! I swear I will fix those!). So, yeah. The ending was a surprise twist for me too. I think I'm beginning to see what I was getting at when I called this story _Twisted_... Gah! The things about this that I no longer remember!**


End file.
